Cute Tales
by Celianna
Summary: NaLu one-shots. Lucy suddenly got it through her thick mind; Natsu was being honest and sincere about his feelings at the moment. "Oh god, you really want to be my boyfriend." He whirled around, his face still a dark red, and yelled; "I do not!"
1. Edolas

**Cute Tales**

**A/N:** I'll be posting small drabbles and one-shots of Natsu and Lucy in here. Most will have no connections with the previous ones, unless I state this myself. Enjoy!

**Chapter 1 - _Edolas_**

* * *

"Natsu, you're really hot!" complained Lucy and she inched away from the fiery dragon slayer who was sitting next to her at the bar.

The pink haired boy simply tilted his head sideways, wondering what was so bad about what he was doing. "My clothes were wet," he stated simply, and used his fire to blow dry his clothes.

Lucy fanned away a few of his flames, scooching away even further. "Can't you do it somewhere else? How'd you get wet in the first place?"

Natsu flicked his head towards Juvia, who had her own little raincloud following her around. She probably misunderstood something that Gray said or something, Lucy figured. The blonde girl sighed and sat away from Natsu by a comfortable margin.

"Hey guys, I have a question." Lisanna stood behind the bar and she leaned on the counter in between them. She then pulled a weird face and looked at Lucy. "Why are you sitting so far away from Natsu?"

"Yeah Lucy, I'm not gonna burn you," said Natsu with a pout, but showed no intention of stopping his hot flames.

Lucy sighed once more and moved a bit closer to him again, making sure his flames wouldn't touch her. She then looked up at Lisanna. "What?"

"Are you two together?" she asked curtly.

Natsu and Lucy both raised their eyebrows. "Together? Well, we're teammates if that's what you mean," said Lucy.

Lisanna put a finger to her lips and nodded thoughtfully. "I see, so it's not the same here as back in Edolas."

"Why? What's back in Edolas?"

She grinned at the both of them. "In Edolas, both of you are a couple!"

Lucy's eyes bulged out in shock, and Natsu's flames raised higher than before. "R-really?" he said simply, his fire going crazy.

"D-don't look so obviously happy at that!" cried out Lucy as she backed up from his flames.

"Huh?" he said confused and turned to look at her with bright eyes. The fire around his body was still going strong, and Lucy was seriously afraid he might burn down the bar.

"Stop trying to burn the guild down, Natsu! Tone it down!" she yelled at him.

Lisanna merely grinned at the ordeal. "I guess I was wrong!" she exclaimed, causing both heads to turn to her. "So Natsu, do you like Lucy?"

Lucy's jaw dropped open and she started to sputter out nonsense at the outrageous question the new guild member had asked. Natsu however, had his flames go up even higher, and he smiled broadly and gave Lucy a thumbs up. "I _really_ like Lucy!"

Lucy felt the tip of her ears burn with blood and she was entirely speechless by Natsu's proclaimed likeness of her. No, no way he meant it in _that_ way. She knew Natsu by now, this guy was as dense as ever, and he probably meant 'I really like you as a friend'. Lucy felt her heart calm down a bit and she returned his smile. This was Natsu, not a romantic bone in his body, and she had already been over that part.

"I really like you too," she said with a smile.


	2. Uncomfortable Stripping

**A/N:** second one-shot! I personally like this one.

**Chapter 2 – **_**Uncomfortable Stripping  


* * *

  
**_

Lucy walked back to her apartment after talking to Mira at the guild. Somehow, the little vixen had gotten it into her mind again that Natsu might have feelings for Lucy. She remembered the last time Mira had said something like this, and Lucy got all her hopes up, only for it to be revealed it was a huge understanding and Natsu was as dense as a rock as ever. There was no way he would have feelings for her. Definitely not, she knew Natsu was Natsu, and because of that, they would never be together.

Not that she wanted to anyway, Natsu was too Natsu for her. Maybe if he was a little bit less idiotic and possessed a good deal of common sense, and maybe stopped calling her weird all the time, and maybe if he actually cared about the opposite sex's bodies then … Lucy slapped her face hard – she mustn't start thinking about Natsu in that way again!

"You are a moron, Lucy," she told herself.

She finally arrived at her apartment and turned the key. She was absolutely and one hundred percent prepared to find Natsu sitting on her couch and giving her a 'Yo!' greeting.

Lucy sighed at him, not wanting to deal with him right now. "Why do you always come in uninvited?"

Natsu scratched the back of his head and cracked a broad grin at her. "Because it's fun here!"

"Yeah, Lucy! Why can't we stay here?" said Happy who was flying above Natsu's head.

"Because you guys have your own house," she responded grimly and walked towards her bathroom.

"Yours is nicer. It smells nicer too!" replied Natsu honestly.

"Yours would too if you didn't leave behind such a mess! You should think about cleaning it if you're complaining that it smells."

"Why would I do that when I can just come over here instead?"

"I'm going to take a bath now, and when I get out, I want you out of my apartment," she said and she shook her head in disapproval.

The girl didn't even bother warning Natsu about peeking in on her, since she knew Natsu had absolutely no interest in her body. It was kind of depressing, she knew she was pretty, she had her big breasts, her slender and curvy figure – yet it didn't faze him at all. She might as well be fat in his eyes; he wouldn't care either way. Lucy took a nice long bath, relaxing in the hot water. She heard some noises coming from the living room, and hoped Natsu would leave already. After about an hour, she finally climbed out and dried herself off, then putting on her bra and panties.

"I thought I told you to go home," she sneered once she saw Natsu sitting on her couch still.

"Go put on some clothes," stated Natsu with a weird look. "Weirdo, you act just like Gray."

Lucy looked down at her white bra and panties, sure it was slightly embarrassing, but it wasn't any different than wearing a bikini, so she didn't know why he was saying that. "What's wrong with it? It's my apartment and I'll wear whatever I want!"

"Lucy is just trying to seduce you," said Happy with an evil look in his eye.

Lucy's cheeks burned up a little bit and she furiously denied it. "I am _not!_ Now get out of my apartment! Shoo!" She started waving her arms around, trying to get Natsu and Happy to leave. The fire mage finally got up and walked over to the window.

"The door! Use the door god damnit!" she shrieked.

"Come on Happy, it's no fun being around Lucy when she's being weird like that anyway." He was referring to her bra and panties combo. Again, what was the problem with that? That fire mage could really irritate her sometimes. He finally left through the window and she quickly shut it again.

Lucy looked down at her half naked body, and then a thought popped up in her head. If Natsu left because she wouldn't get dressed, that meant she had a way of chasing him out of her apartment! Brilliant! Next time she would just strip like Gray did and chase him away! It was absolutely brilliant!

The next day Lucy lounged around the guild at the bar. When she saw Gray she had to ask him a question.

"Hey Gray, I have a question."

Gray sat down next to her, stripped down to his boxers. It didn't faze her one bit, she was pretty much used to this.

"What's up," he said.

"Why do you think Natsu gets annoyed that you strip off your clothing?"

His eyebrows arched up and then he narrowed her eyes at her. "I'm guessing it's the same reason you do?"

Lucy laughed it off and waved her hand at him, as if to dismiss that comment. "Oh come on, I'm pretty much used to it, but Natsu still gets uncomfortable when you do it."

Gray propped his elbows on the bar and leaned his chin in his hands, wondering about her question. "I don't know. Why don't you ask him?"

"Good point," she said, agreeing with him. Gray then got up and walked away, conversing with his other teammates.

Speak of the devil, Natsu just entered the guild, with Happy flying behind him. Lucy waved him over, smiling brightly at the fire mage.

"Hey Lucy, what's up!" said Natsu as he took a seat next to her at the bar.

"I have a question for you, Natsu!" she said cheerfully.

Happy walked across the counter and sat in front of Lucy, staring at her with big eyes. "Are you going to ask him on a date?" he asked slyly.

Lucy karate chopped his head and swatted him away like a fly. "Anyways, I want to know why Gray being in his underwear makes you feel uncomfortable."

Natsu raised his pink eyebrow at her and pulled on a foul face. "What sort of question is _that?_" he mocked. "You're weird, Lucy."

Lucy blinked her eyes innocently, and pushed herself closer to Natsu's seat. She puckered her lips and looked at him sweetly. "Could it be … that you're gay?"

Natsu's mouth dropped open in horror, along with Happy's mouth. He then glared at her in anger and disgust. "What? No! How the heck did you come to that conclusion! That's just damn nasty Lucy, it's not even funny!"

Lucy simply laughed out loud at his outrageous reaction; she had definitely hit a sore spot over there. Afterwards, Natsu refused to give her a proper answer, leaving Lucy to figure it out by herself. The wheels in her head started to turn, and she was going to strip to her underwear the next time Natsu would breach in her house, and force an answer out of him. When Lucy returned home that evening, she opened her door with a sly smirk.

"Yo!" called out Natsu from her couch. Typical Natsu, he was really predictable, wasn't he?

"Get out," she said simply, her usual anger not present in her tone.

"Look Lucy, I brought you something!" he said happily.

Lucy looked around and found no trace of the usual blue cat. "Where's Happy?" she asked as she walked over to the couch.

"Oh he's passed out from eating too much fish, he'll be alright. But look what I found! It's exactly what you like!" He happily held up a book in front of her face and Lucy read the cover.

_Top Ten Most Gruesome Deaths In History_

Lucy's eyebrow twitched. She pushed the book away from her face and glared at the pink haired boy. "Why exactly do you think I would like _this?_"

Natsu flipped the book cover towards himself again, looking at it with a confused look. "Because you like books?" he hopefully answered.

Lucy pushed her knuckles against Natsu's head, making him whine. "You should die, Natsu," she said with an evil glare, pushing her knuckles even harder against his temples.

"Aye, that hurts!" he said and tried to slap her away, though his slaps were playful and didn't contain his real and powerful strength.

"Get out of my apartment already," she then said with a sigh and sauntered away from Natsu.

"Oh come on, I wanted to hang out, I even brought you a stupid book!" he said childishly and gave her a pout. It made him look kinda cute, and Lucy giggled at the expression.

"I'm gonna take a bath now!" she called out and quickly darted over to the bathroom.

Lucy smirked knowingly as she locked the door behind her. She was definitely going to have some fun with this. The blonde girl took a quick bath, and she dried herself off and put on her nice white panties and laced white bra. With a smile, she opened her door, and as expected Natsu was sitting on her couch – reading her story.

Lucy's face turned red and she hurried over to him and snatched her manuscript out of his hands. "D-don't read that!" she cried out.

Natsu turned to look at her and gave her an annoyed look. "Hey, I was just getting to the good part," he said a bit irritated.

"No! I won't let you read it when it's still unfinished!" She held the bunch of papers close to her chest and looked away from his daring green eyes.

"Lucy," said Natsu.

Lucy raised her eyebrows. "What?"

"You're not dressed. Again."

A wicked smile spread across her lips as she placed her manuscript on the table, then slowly advanced on Natsu. "What's your point?" she said with a smirk. Her knees touched the couch, right in between Natsu's spread out legs. "Do I make you … uncomfortable?" she said softly and bent down to his face, now slightly learning on the couch.

Natsu was pressed against the couch, trying to keep his body from touching her even one inch. He looked at her with wide eyes and his eyebrows were furrowed together. "Lucy, you're weird. What are you doing? Don't sit all over me."

Lucy laughed out loud, leaning back this time, but successfully sitting with her knees on the couch, in between Natsu's legs. "It's so easy teasing you like this!" she said happily, a bit surprised that her plan had worked.

"_Teasing?_" he repeated, his green eyes now staring at her laughing face.

"Why, what else am I be doing?" she said with a chuckle.

And then it hit her. She was in between Natsu's legs on the couch, half naked – and had admitted to_ teasing_ him. It was all the more obvious when she noticed Natsu's red tinted cheeks. Lucy's face filled up with blood and she shrieked, yanking herself away from Natsu, but only managed to fall down on her back, her legs spreading up in the air.

"Ouch," she groaned, rubbing the back of her head.

"Are you okay, Lucy?" asked Natsu as he hovered above her.

Lucy opened her eyes and softly nodded her head. Natsu stuck out his hand as he got off the couch, and she gladly accepted. He pulled her up and she rubbed the back of her head again. Her brown eyes studied Natsu's timid face, he was avoiding looking at her, and his cheeks were still red. How cute! He was really blushing!

"Lucy," he said, forcing his eyes to avert away from her body.

"Hm?" she replied.

"Your bra …"

Lucy looked down at her bra, her mouth dropping open in horror as she noticed that during her fall, her bra had shifted upwards, causing her breasts to be totally exposed. "KYYAA!" she screamed out, then she punched Natsu hard in the face, knocking him back on the ground. "DON'T LOOK!" She quickly fixed her bra to cover her breasts as an extreme blush covered her entire face.

"Get out of my apartment!" she shrieked at him.

Natsu scrambled off the floor and jumped out of the window.

Since that day, Natsu would leave her apartment every time she would take a bath like a good little boy.


	3. Sleeping

**A/N:** isn't it cute how Natsu went to sleep in Lucy's bed that one time? I just had to write a little one-shot about something similar.

**Chapter 3 – **_**Sleeping  


* * *

  
**_

Lucy felt her body becoming uncomfortably hot. She vaguely wondered if it was summer already, but thought nothing of it as she continued to sleep in her bed. However, the temperature around her continued to rise until she was forced to change positions because it became really uncomfortable. Lucy slowly opened her eyes in frustration, not liking the heat at all. A bright light blinded her eyes for a second and she shrieked in response.

"Morning Lucy!" said the voice that belonged to Happy.

Lucy lifted up her head from the pillow and finally cracked her eyes open to glare at the mischievous cat. "What are you doing here, Happy," she grumbled as she let her chin rest on her pillow.

Happy merely smiled at her, then shoved a blank piece of paper in Lucy's face. Lucy was about to deliver a string of curses at the cat for waking her up, when she saw a picture appear on the piece of paper. She squeezed her eyes to get a better vision, and saw herself appear on the paper – it was a Polaroid photo. Lucy opened her mouth to yell at Happy for taking pictures of her when she noticed a second person appearing in the photo. A person laying behind her, a person with pink hair snuggling close to her.

"KYAAA!" she screamed out lout, falling out of her bed on top of Happy. Lucy stared with wide eyes at Natsu's sleeping form, he had been sleeping next to her all this time, and his body heat had been the culprit of making it hot in her bed.

"Natsu!" she yelled at him.

His sleeping head finally moved from its spot and he slowly opened his eyes. "Can you keep your voice down?" he mumbled, then turned his face away from her to continue sleeping. Lucy however, finally got off the ground – and off of a squished Happy – and pulled the blanket off of Natsu in anger.

"Get out! You freak! Why were you sleeping in my bed!"

Natsu turned his body around again and he glared at her. "Well, _you're _not in a good mood," he said while frowning.

Lucy would have spewed out fire in anger, that is, if she had that kind of magic. Instead she resorted to grabbing Natsu's shirt and pulling him out of her bed.

"Get out already!"

Natsu held onto a pillow as he let himself be dragged off of the bed, landing with a thud on the ground. He glared at her, annoyed that she woke him up in such a violent manner. Lucy then turned to Happy, who was slowly walking away with his Polaroid camera.

"And you!" she rushed over to Happy and tore the picture out of his hands. "Don't take pictures of me when I'm asleep!" The blonde then shredded the evidence of ever having slept in the same bed as Natsu.

"Gee Lucy, can't you keep it down in the morning?" asked Natsu as he walked up behind her.

Lucy pointed out her index finger at him, clearly annoyed at this all. "And _you!_ Why the hell were you in my bed!"

Natsu blinked twice, then leaned back with his arms folded behind his head and smiled his trademark Natsu smile at her. "Because it's comfy!"

Lucy's mouth dropped open, utterly speechless at the bluntness of Natsu's answer. "That's not a good enough reason to sleep in my bed! Get out of my apartment already! And don't sleep in my bed!" She then turned to Happy. "And don't take pictures!"

After that, she had successfully kicked the two out of her apartment, and went back to bed. When she finally woke up again, she checked her bed to see if Natsu hadn't slipped back in. Lucy sighed in relief when he wasn't there, then got up to get ready and left to go to the guild. As she got closer to the guild, she started to feel like something bad was about to happen. Shaking the feeling off, Lucy entered the guild.

"Yo Lucy, I didn't know you slept with Natsu!" said Gray with a large smile on his face.

Lucy's face paled, the colour slowly draining away. Then Levy walked by and hit her shoulder.

"You sleaze, you never told me about your sleeping habits!" she then gave her a perverted smile and walked away.

Lucy was left in shock, her soul almost leaving her body. The guild knew that Natsu slept in her bed, and they were treating it like it happened every day! How did they know about it anyway? It was then that Lucy saw it, people were crowded around the request board. The girl's eyes bulged out as she saw a picture of her and Natsu sleeping with each other pinned to the board. This wasn't the same picture she had shredded, this was a different picture, taken while she was still asleep. Her now pale face was riddled with red, rage coursing through her body, she was thinking about a millions ways she could punish Happy for pulling this stunt. She then spotted Natsu's pink hair at the request board.

"Natsu!" she yelled out, stomping over to them.

The boy in question turned around, his pink eyebrows raised, then smiled at her all nonchalant. "Hey!" he greeted her, as if nothing was wrong.

Lucy grabbed his scarf and pulled him close to her, butting her head against his. "Don't you hey me! Why is that … that … _that thing_ on the board!"

Guild members around her started to congratulate her about getting together with Natsu, giving her pats on the back, and telling her good luck. Lucy vehemently denied the accusations, but she wouldn't let go of Natsu's scarf.

"Isn't it a good picture?" he said, still smiling so nonchalantly.

Lucy looked at the picture, and her head was resting on the pillow, while Natsu seemed to be snuggling his face in the nook of her neck. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up straight, and she didn't know whether to be embarrassed or violated. She decided on violated, so she reached out to grab the picture from the board and shredded it to pieces as well.

Natsu pouted at her. "Hey, Happy liked that picture."

Lucy bared her fangs at him. "Happy can kiss my ass!"

Natsu chuckled, then he reached his hand on the inside of his shirt, and pulled out three more pictures of them sleeping with each other in her bed. "No worries, Happy took a lot of them over the past week."

Over the past week.

_Over the past week._

**Over the past week.**

**OVER THE PAST WEEK.**

"OH MY GOD, NATSU!" She shook him by the scarf, then tightened it around his throat, slowly strangling him. "Are you telling me you've been sleeping in my bed for a week!"

Natsu's fingers tried to pry off the scarf from his throat, but Lucy held it tight, making him suffer. When she saw he was trying to talk, but couldn't, she let the scarf loose, giving him a chance to take a breath. "Well you see …"

Lucy punched him in the face, making him crash against the request board. "There's _no_ excuse in the entire _world_ that would somehow make up for you sleeping in my bed without my knowledge for a week!" She then turned on her heel and ran away. "I've slept with a guy for a whole week, I am unfit to be wed!" she cried out in despair, finally running out of the guild.

That night, as Lucy crept into her bed, she heard her window open. In climbed Natsu, giving her his normal greeting like always.

"Stop breaking into my house!" she hissed, pulling the covers over her scarcely clothed body. "I don't want to see you right now – not after sleeping in the same bed as me for a week."

Natsu waved his hand at her. "Ah come on Lucy, don't be mad at me, your bed is just a lot more comfortable than mine!"

She threw a pillow at him, which he easily dodged. "Then buy a new bed! Don't sleep in mine!"

"But I like sleeping with you too," he admitted with a shy smile. "It's pretty relaxing."

Lucy's face started to heat up and she glared at him for saying such weird things. "You pervert!" she called out, throwing her last pillow at him, which he dodged again. "Get out!"

Natsu pulled a sad face, leaving his shoulders to hang low. "You don't want me to sleep with you?" he asked in a sad voice.

Her face turned even a brighter shade of red – what in the world was he thinking sleeping with her, and saying things like that, it was utterly embarrassing. "Of course not!"

It was obvious the way he felt, since disappointment was written all over his face. "You don't like it?"

"Hell no!" she bit back.

Natsu's shoulders dropped even lower. "Ah, I see. Then, I'll take my leave now." With that, Natsu depressingly left her apartment. Through the door, no less.

Lucy decided the issue was dealt with and went to bed. The next day when she saw Natsu again at the guild, she glared at him, even if he was only saying hello to her. He hung his head down and slowly walked away from her. Lucy stuck her nose up high in the air. How dare he sleep with her, and how dare Happy take pictures of her sleeping. They both deserved to be yelled at, and she wasn't going to talk to them for a long time!

That was, until a few days later when Happy had walked over the bar and sat down in front of her.

"Lucy," the cat said. "Natsu feels really bad about what he did."

Lucy had ignored the pink haired boy for three days in a row, and she was beginning to feel like her punishment was a bit harsh. After all, he was only sleeping with her innocently. The blonde shook her head; it didn't matter if it was innocently or not – it was a breach of her privacy!

"He should be," she said with a firm tone.

Happy shuffled around on his spot. "I'm sorry for taking pictures of you."

Lucy simply smiled at the cat, at least he had apologized. "That's alright, Happy. Just don't do it again."

His eyes started to sparkle with tears. "But you both looked so happy together! I just wanted to take a picture so I could keep it with me at all times, to see the both of you happy!"

"Aww Happy, that is _so _sweet," she said with a smile.

No wait, he was just pulling at her heart strings, Happy wasn't that nice.

"And Natsu looks so happy when he was sleeping with you. He never smiles in his sleep, but with you, he does!" said Happy, and then he showed her another picture of them sleeping together.

Lucy looked at the picture, and she leaned on the palm of her hand, slightly smiling at it. Natsu was laying on his side, as was she, and he had an arm wrapped around her waist. His lips were indeed pulled in what it looked like a smile, a content and relaxed smile.

"He didn't mean to make you mad," said Happy quietly, putting the picture away.

"Is that so …" she mused.

Lucy stayed at the bar until it was very late and everyone had left to go home. She had seen Natsu leave as well (in a rather depressing way), then finally decided to leave too. She walked through the streets, looking at the stars in the sky. Lucy stood in front of the small house and she smiled at it. She then turned the knob of the door, finding out that it was open.

"Natsu, Natsu, you have absolutely no common sense," she said softly with a giggle. She entered the small house, and her feet almost tripped over a pile of trash. Natsu's living room was stuffed with trash, it was literally everywhere. Lucy could almost see his point how it was much nicer to sleep in her house – but the idiot should really clean up his own home, instead of sleeping at hers.

She quietly walked over to his bed, and saw Natsu's sleeping form, laying on his back in the bed, his covers half thrown off. Lucy smiled as she saw Happy sleeping above his head. She then took off her jacket, and lifted up the blanket, crawling underneath it. The sudden movement made Natsu's eyes pop open. Lucy lay her head on the pillow and gave him a smile, their heads almost touching each other.

"Hi," she said softly.

Natsu's green eyes blinked at her twice, then he closed them with a smile. "Hey," he replied.

"Mind if I sleep over for tonight?" she asked innocently.

Natsu merely grinned at her and snuggled closer to her body underneath the blanket.


	4. Sleeping II

**A/N:** continuation of chapter 3 – _Sleeping_. Sorry about any typos/grammar errors I wrote this a bit late.

**Chapter 4 - **_**Sleeping II  


* * *

  
**_

Lucy moved a bit closer to her own personal heater. It was a cold day, so she savored all the body heat that Natsu kept trapped inside of his own. She brought up her knees so that they were touching Natsu's bare stomach, then stretched out her cold hands to cup his cheeks. Green eyes cracked open sleepily, he looked at her as if asking her what she was doing. His eyes looked left and right, to her hands that were cupping his cheeks, but then closed them again and continued his sleep. Lucy merely giggled, wondering when this had become so normal to them.

Ever since that day she crawled into Natsu's bed to show him she wasn't mad at him anymore, they had been sleeping with each other every day. In her bed of course, since it was bigger and much comfier – also because her apartment was clean, whereas Natsu's was a train wreck. It had turned into a normal routine, while at first Lucy had resisted his frequent late-night visits, and even pushed him out of her bed sometimes, she would eventually let him sleep in her bed. After all, it wasn't that bad, Natsu was actually pretty comfortable to sleep with, if he wasn't raising up his body temperature that is. During cold days, his warm body was actually a big plus, and Lucy would snuggle closer to him to get warmer. Natsu hadn't mind at all, but would sometimes wrap his arms around her to keep her close to him. Lucy had noticed that when she was in his arms, that she would fall asleep immediately. Afterwards, she realized she understood Natsu's reasoning of sleeping with her; it was relaxing.

"Natsu, wake up, we gotta go," she whispered in his ear. Lucy had managed to press herself up against his back during their sleep, and she was shaking his arm to wake him up.

"Hmm, I don't wanna," he whined.

Lucy rolled her eyes and finally got out of bed. "We have a train to catch Natsu."

She heard him groan out loud. "That's exactly why I don't want to get up!"

Lucy pulled the blanket off of him. "Come on, you know we have a job to do."

Natsu finally turned his head towards her, looking at her with sour eyes. He let out a sigh and finally climbed out of bed.

Together with Happy, Erza and Gray they arrived at the train station. Natsu was already turning green at the sight of the train. Lucy had to link her arm with his to drag him into a compartment. As soon as the train started to move, Natsu slumped against his seat with a pained expression on his face, not being able to function anymore. Lucy had always felt bad for his motion sickness, but there wasn't anything she could do for him.

"Hey Natsu, lay down on my lap," she had said with a smile. Natsu, barely comprehending what she said, fell down on her lap anyways as the train followed a curve to the right.

"Good choice, Lucy," said Erza with a smirk. "Now give him a hard blow to his stomach."

Lucy quickly shook her head. "No! I can't do that! This is Natsu …"

"If he's out cold he won't have to sit through the pain," pointed out the redhead.

Lucy looked down at Natsu's head which was in her lap. Her fingers gently played with his pink hair. "Even so, that's just too harsh."

"I'll be the first one to laugh if he pukes on you," said Gray, who was sitting in front of her.

Lucy glared at the both of them, but was confident that she could help ease Natsu's motion sickness by stroking his hair. She hoped that by being close to her he would relax a bit, enough to fall asleep without being physically knocked out. Unfortunately, her predictions were wrong, Natsu didn't fall asleep like she hoped. Instead, his greenish face had turned to its normal colour, but he was still weak and whining in her lap – but at least not on the verge of puking his guts out. This was enough to keep her happy throughout the entire trip.

The first thing they did when they arrived at the town was to go to the hotel they had booked.

"Here's your key," said Erza and she handed over the key to Lucy. "Room 212."

Lucy stared at the key and took it. "Which rooms do you have?"

"I have 217, Gray has 205 and Natsu has 101."

"What, are you saying Natsu has to sleep on a different floor than us?" she asked a bit disappointed.

Erza simply shrugged her shoulders. "I couldn't get a room closer, they were all booked."

Lucy pouted and stared at her key. "Poor Natsu and Happy."

Natsu and Gray were slugging behind them, with Gray carrying a weakened Natsu. "Oi, get this guy off of me already!"

Lucy quickly hopped over to them and swung Natsu's arm over her shoulder so she was carrying him now. "Here, give me his key so I can bring him to his room."

Erza handed the key over to Lucy, and she wandered off with Natsu by her side, and Happy flying behind them. She reached the first floor and quickly located room 101. She used the key to open the door and stumbled inside, Natsu was a bit heavy for her after all.

"Are we there yet?" asked Natsu confused. He lifted up his head to look around in the room. "Oh," he said, then smiled. "So we are!" He stood up straight and walked away from Lucy, being over his motion sickness already. He plopped down on the big white bed in the middle of the room with a bright smile.

"Thanks Lucy!" he said.

"Oh no problem," she responded instinctively. "Wait – what are you thanking me for?"

Natsu stretched his arms and lay down on the bed with his back. "For not knocking me out in the train."

Lucy's expression turned a bit darker. "… I'm not Erza you know."

Happy walked by Lucy and shook his head. "Lucy can be scary too sometimes."

Lucy glared at the cat and he let out a small shriek, running over towards Natsu. "Natsu, Lucy is being scary!"

Natsu merely laughed out loud, feeling much better after getting off the train. Lucy saw he was settled in already, so she turned around to leave. "Well then, I'll go to my room and get some sleep."

Natsu's body shot up straight when he heard her opening the door. "You're not staying here?" he asked sadly.

"Yeah Lucy, sleep with us!"

Hearing them say they wanted her to stay and sleep with them was sort of embarrassing, so Lucy tried to hide the small blush on her cheeks with her blonde hair. "Erza got separate rooms for each of us, and I don't want to waste her money."

Both of them said a small 'oh' and got quiet all of the sudden. Lucy sighed, she knew that they were really disappointed, but they didn't need to sleep with each other all the time – no matter how comfortable it was.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow, okay?"

"Lucy!" called out Happy. "What room are you in?"

She rose an eyebrow. "Why? Are you planning on sneaking in?" she asked suspiciously.

Happy looked guilty and shuffled on his spot. "Ehh …"

Lucy childishly stuck out her tongue. "I won't tell yah!" She then finally left their hotel room. She made sure they weren't going to follow her to her own room so she could get some peace and quiet for once.

Being alone again for the first time in a while, Lucy took a nice long bath without any interruptions. Then she slipped into her pajamas, and went to bed. She snuggled underneath the fluffy white blankets and lay her head on the pillow. She closed her eyes with a smile – for once she was sleeping alone again. The girl pulled up her legs to her chest, since she was pretty cold. She held her hands together to keep them from being cold as well, and started thinking how she had forgotten how cold she could be without Natsu's body heat comforting her. Lucy shook her head; she could do without them for a day!

Lucy focused her thoughts on something else, like their mission for example. The girl tried her best to stay clear from thoughts about Natsu or Happy, but failed as she realized she wasn't falling asleep, and she really missed them. Well, she really missed Natsu holding her. Lucy blushed and buried her face into her pillow; she was liking Natsu too much, she had to stop thinking about him.

An hour had passed, and Lucy was still wide awake, she really couldn't seem to fall asleep. Whenever Natsu was around she would simply feel his body pressed up against her and sleep would hit her instantly. Yet now, she couldn't stop thinking about him, and it was keeping her awake. She wondered if Natsu was sleeping already, at least he had Happy's company.

Another hour passed and Lucy felt tired, but was unable to fall asleep. She sighed and pulled the covers over her face. The sudden sound of her door opening scared the crap out of her, and Lucy got up, screaming bloody murder. A hand covered her mouth and she could feel the familiar body heat emerging from the pink haired boy.

"Shh!" he hushed her. "You don't need to scream, who else, other than me, would sneak into your room?" he asked annoyed.

Lucy pushed his hand away, but was happy he had come. He was sitting on her bed, and her body was slowly shifting towards him because of his weight. "Well, I don't recall telling you in which room I was staying at. That's my reason for screaming! Don't do that again!"

Natsu simply chuckled, and for a second she wanted to turn on the lights so she could see his smiling face. "Did you forget I can smell you?"

Lucy's face flushed and she pulled the fluffy blanket over her body. "I d-don't smell!"

Natsu flicked his finger against her forehead. "Stupid. I meant your scent."

"Oh," she said, realizing this, then felt even more embarrassed. "Why are you here anyway?"

She felt Natsu shift his body on her bed, probably pulling his legs up. "Couldn't sleep."

"Me neither," she said with a small smile.

Her head was then smashed against his chest in one movement. His arm was around her shoulders, keeping her in place against his chest. Lucy could hear his heartbeat beating through his chest, and for some reason, her cheeks heated up even more.

"I need you near me," he murmured softly. He then leaned his chin on top of her head and Lucy felt strange tingling feelings rush through her body. "I can't sleep if I don't know you're safe."

Lucy felt her heart beating like crazy, and she snaked her arms around his waist to pull him in for a real hug. Hearing those words made her extremely happy, even more so considering this was Natsu, the oblivious guy who would barely tell her his feelings. She smiled against his chest and breathed in his scent, which always managed to calm her down.

"So …" he said a bit shy. "Can I sleep with you?" Then he hastily added; "forever?"

Bubbling feelings burst through her chest and Lucy laughed out loud. "Are you proposing to me?" she asked with a slap on his arm.

He finally lifted his chin up from her head. "Ah crap, it does sound like that."

Lucy pressed her face into his chest, feeling giddy and embarrassed at what she was about to say. "On one condition," she said into his warm chest.

"What's that?"

The blonde then finally pulled her face away from his chest, and tilted up her face. She felt Natsu's gaze on her, even though it was dark and she couldn't see a thing. That was rather a good thing, since her cheeks were burning with blood and she would die if Natsu saw her like that. Nevertheless, Lucy closed her eyes and inched closer to Natsu's face, the heat pulling her in.

"That is," she said softly and she placed her small hands on his shoulder, helping her pull herself up more to his level. "If I can do this every night." Lucy then took the plunge and leaned forward, her lips making contact with his own hot ones. She felt fire burn through her body, and she wasn't sure if it was because she was actually kissing Natsu, or because he was just so damn hot because of his dragon slayer magic. The girl pulled away after half a second, breaking their innocent kiss, and her eyes fluttered open.

Her predictions had actually been half right; Natsu's body was ablaze, lighting up the room, and scorching the blankets.

"Natsu!" she yelled out as she saw her blanket catch fire.

Natsu finally pulled out of his daze and quickly withdrew his own flames, and hit the blanket a few times to stop the fire from spreading. After the fire finally sizzled out, Lucy could smell the burnt cloth enter her nostrils. It wasn't exactly as romantic as she hoped this would have been.

"Sorry," he said with a nervous chuckle. "Got a bit too excited there."

Well, it wasn't romantic at all, but it was definitely done in Natsu style, so Lucy simply laughed, and he laughed along with her. It didn't matter if it was romantic, that they would end their night in a steamy hot make-out session, but that she was still able to laugh with him like normal after they had kissed.

"So uhm," said Lucy quietly after their laughter died down. "The condition?" she asked shyly and felt her cheeks heat up again.

"Oh!" he said a bit surprised. "That was a condition?" he asked a bit dumb. Lucy was about to cry a river of tears, when he added; "seemed more like a perk to me."

Together they laughed once more, and Natsu finally crept underneath the burnt blanket with her. She snuggled lovingly into his chest and he wrapped his arms around her. It didn't matter the room smelt like burnt cloth, it didn't matter it wasn't the least bit romantic – all that mattered was that as soon as she felt his arms wrap around her, she fell asleep, just like that.


	5. Edolas II

**A/N:** Thanks for the reviews, I'm glad everyone thinks the stories are cute (hence the title!). This one is a prequel of the first chapter.

**Chapter 5 –**_** Edolas II  


* * *

**_

He liked her. He had for a very long time, but only recently had he been able to accept that he had feelings for his trusty blonde teammate. Natsu wasn't quite sure when it happened, or even how it happened, all he knew was that he cared for Lucy a lot. Really, a lot.

"Happy, how do I tell Lucy I like her without looking like an idiot?" he asked his partner.

"Here's an idea," said Happy with a smile.

Natsu leaned closer, open to any ideas on how to confess to Lucy.

"You walk up to her," said Happy. Natsu nodded, urging for him to continue. "And then you say … I like you!"

Natsu threw his fist up in the air. "Simple and blunt! I like it!" The dragon slayer then set out to meet up with Lucy. He went to her apartment, but she wasn't there, so he did what he usually did when he had to wait for her to come home; he'd sit on the couch and stare at the door.

He wondered how Lucy would take it. Would Lucy smile and return his feelings? Or would she beat the crap out of him and tell him to get out of her apartment? Natsu wiggled on his spot, leaning to the left and then to the right, becoming a bit nervous thinking about her reaction. He hadn't given it much thought how Lucy would feel towards him. Was it arrogant to think she liked him as well? How could she _not_ like him – he was awesome and they always hung out together. Then again, she would also voice her complaints about him all day long, telling her how much he annoyed her from time to time. Maybe it _was_ a bit arrogant to think she liked him back. Natsu's expression darkened and he was feeling more nervous than normal. Was it really such a good idea to tell Lucy he liked her when he had no idea if she would return his feelings? If she rejected him, he didn't know what would happen to him.

The door swung open and Lucy shrieked at the sight of Natsu sitting in her chair. "Yo!" he greeted with a nervous smile.

"S-so nonchalant!" she sputtered. She then calmed down and closed her door, walking over towards him. "What are you doing here this time?"

Natsu averted his eyes, staring at the floor, and he felt his cheeks burn slightly at the thought of confessing to Lucy. "Well," he started a bit nervous. "I wanted to tell you something …"

Lucy plumped down on the other couch. "Ahh, do it quick, I want to take a bath already."

Natsu stared at her legs, and he prepared himself to tell her he liked her. He parted his lips to finally start, and his heartbeat went nuts in his chest. Who knew he could get so nervous just trying to tell her how he felt.

"I … I …" he stuttered. He shook his head and tried again. "I-I l-llllliii …" Natsu breathed heavily, his head hung down as he stared with wide eyes at the floor. What was wrong with him! He couldn't even speak normally anymore, he was riddled with nerves! The great Natsu, turned speechless at the time of a confession!

"I … ?" repeated Lucy, wanting him to continue already.

Natsu clenched his hands into fists and he lifted up his head to look at her. He squeezed his eyes shut and pursed his lips awkwardly. "I liikkeeee …" he said with a strained voice, and he felt sweat appearing on his forehead. His heartbeat was pumping way too much blood to his face, and he was sure it was the same colour as Erza's hair. He huffed loudly, trying again.

"I like …!"

"You like …?"

Natsu's hand finally patted on the couch and he placed on a stupid, dimwitted expression on his face. "I like this couch."

"Weirdo," said Lucy, and she finally got up and walked to the bathroom.

Natsu dropped down on his hands and knees, his face totally dark. He couldn't do it, he couldn't say he liked her. He couldn't utter those three words to her, it was a complete and utter failure. It was pathetic and weak, Natsu berated himself over it and punched himself in the face as punishment.

"Idiot," said Happy when Natsu returned home. "What's so hard about saying 'I like you'?"

Natsu felt tears appearing in his eyes and he sniffed loudly. "I'm a complete failure, Happy," he said in a very sad voice.

Happy rubbed Natsu's back, consoling him for a bit. "Don't worry Natsu, I'm sure there's other ways to tell her how you feel!"

Filled with newfound hope, Natsu looked up with big sparkling eyes at Happy. "There are?"

Happy started pacing up and down the floor. "Yeah! You don't have to outright say it, you could give her a gift or something!"

Natsu clung to every word Happy was saying, and was worshipping the ground he walked on. "Brilliant, Happy!" he said loudly. "Then, what kind of gift?"

Happy stopped pacing and stood still, deep in thought. He then brought up his hands and said, "a fish!"

Natsu glared at Happy and hit him on his head. "Moron, why would Lucy want a fish?"

Happy merely looked at him with hurt filled eyes. "You're such a meanie, Natsu, I'm only trying to help!"

"Okay, then what kind of gift should I get her?" he asked, then started thinking about the things that Lucy liked.

She liked books, she also liked writing – oh and she had a drawer full of perverted underwear. A light bulb went off in his head; perverted underwear, great idea! If he gave her underwear, it could mean something like; _hey I like you, I want to get in your underwear._ It was the perfect way of conveying his feelings!

The next day, Natsu shopped around the lingerie departments, looking for some raunchy underwear. He had looked at a few really revealing pieces, and he blushed at the thought of picturing Lucy wearing them. Most came in sets, so he figured he might as well buy her a complete set, underwear and a bra. As he picked up a red laced bra, he wondered if it would fit her. Natsu's head tilted sideways and he started thinking about the size of her breasts. They were abnormally large, but he didn't want to buy something that was still too small for her. He tried to remember the times his face had been squished in between them, or that time when he transformed into Lucy and grabbed her breasts. Using this as a reference for her size, Natsu placed his hands on the bra to measure the size. Nope, this one was too small. The other one was too big, and then he found a black leather outfit that had her size. Or at least, he hoped it did.

Natsu walked out the store with a smile on his face. He had bought the leather outfit, complete with chains and the clerk had even gave him a long black whip! Which was perfect, since he knew Lucy liked to fight with a whip. It was going to be the perfect present for her. The boy headed over to the guild, knowing Lucy would be sitting at the bar as always. He couldn't wait to see her pretty little face light up when he gave her the present – she'd love it!

"Lucy!" he said happily as he saw her sitting at the bar.

Lucy's face perked up and she looked at him, smiling at him and giving him a small 'hello'.

Natsu sat down at the bar, holding the present in his hands, he was seething with excitement. He wasn't one to talk much with words, actions spoke much louder! Giving Lucy a present was exactly how one would say 'I like you'.

"What's that?" asked Lucy, noticing the pink box he was holding.

Natsu grinned with a small blush, then shoved the box into her lap. "It's a present, for you!"

Lucy's eyes started to sparkle, and she clapped her hands together. "Really? How thoughtful of you!" she then slowly lifted up the lid of the pink box, her eyes still sparkling. Natsu had a wide grin plastered on his face; he couldn't wait to see her reaction.

"Natsu ... what is this," said Lucy in a deep voice as her eyes stared dully at the leather lingerie.

"Do you like it?" he asked excited, scooching closer to her. "It even came with a whip!"

Lucy slowly turned her face to him, and he was shocked to see her giving him the evil eye, as if she was about to mutilate him to death. Didn't she like the present? Had he gotten her the wrong thing?

"Natsu …" she started out in a killer voice, putting away the pink box. She then head butted him against his own head, causing him to fling backwards from the force. "You idiot!" she yelled at him, then stormed out of the guild.

The boy laid on the floor, unable to move. Had he been rejected? Or did she not understand that was his way of saying 'I like you'? He made a mental note to strangle Happy when he got back home.

"Oh my, what raunchy lingerie!" squeaked Mirajane as she picked up the pink box and looked inside of it.

Natsu scrambled up and sat the bar, all depressed because Lucy didn't like his present. He looked up at Mira with hopeful eyes; maybe she could give him some wisdom on how to deal with the issue.

"You like her, don't you?" she asked with a sweet smile.

Natsu cried tears of happiness; at least someone could see it! Mira was the best! "I don't think this is the right way of showing it to her, though," she said a bit sad.

"Mira tell me, how do I show her I like her without actually telling her?" he asked quickly, desperate for more advice.

"For starters, don't buy her lingerie like this," she said and stuffed the pink box away underneath the bar. "You could try complimenting her."

Words again, he wasn't so good with those. "What kind of compliments?" he asked, dreading having to say anything at all.

"Oh, stuff like 'you look pretty!' or 'I like your hair', or even 'that skirt looks good on you'. Give her compliments on her appearance, guaranteed she'll like it!"

Natsu quickly got over his depression and stood up straight, throwing his fist in the air again. "Compliments on her appearance! Got it!" Telling her she was pretty wouldn't be that hard, right? With that, Natsu set out to find Lucy.

He found her near the big oak tree where he used to think a treasure was buried underneath it. Lucy was sitting against the big tree, reading a book. She noticed Natsu walk up to her and she showed her disdain by scoffing loudly and ignoring his greeting.

"H-hi, Lucy," he said, getting a bit more nervous now. She was still angry at him because of the present.

"Sorry, if you didn't like the present," he said and scratched the back of his head. Then he remembered he should be complimenting her appearance. "I just thought you'd look prr …" Natsu tried to get the words out of his throat, but it was proving to be a difficult feat. "Prreeettyy …" Lucy looked up with surprised eyes, and Natsu's iron will shattered on the spot. "Stupid in it," he finally finished.

Lucy huffed and closed her book, getting up to walk away from him. "Well I never!" she said angrily then started to stomp away.

Shit, that wasn't good, he managed to insult her instead of complimenting her. _Quick Natsu, say she's pretty! Say you like her! _Natsu stared at Lucy's back which was becoming smaller and smaller in his field of vision. His eyes started to roll around as he tried to think of something to compliment.

"W-wait!" he said hastily, still trying to figure out what to say. When Lucy slowed down her pace, his green eyes landed on her round butt. So of course, the first thing he said was; "you have a big ass."

Lucy fiercely turned around and yanked her shirt to cover her butt. She would be spewing fire at him if she had that kind of magic, but instead gave him the meanest glare she could muster, and she looked pretty damn frightening, even though her face was entirely red. After that evil look, she stomped away for good this time.

Natsu dropped down on his knees again, absolutely mortified that he'd screwed it up even more. It was meant to be a compliment! He liked her big butt, so that was the first thing that popped up in his mind as it was swaying form left to right when she was walking away from him. But now, he had really screwed up his chances, she was really angry with him. Natsu then dropped his entire body on the ground, his fighting soul having left the empty shell that was once called Natsu.

"Wow Natsu, even I didn't think you could mess it up that much," said Happy with a smirk. "How can you even go wrong with compliments? That's a new low for you, Natsu."

Natsu went to lay down on his hammock, feeling depressed he had managed to make the girl he liked hate him. There was no way she could ever like him back, not when he managed to insult her that much. He couldn't even outright say that he liked her. He didn't show up at the guild for an entire day, spending his time brooding over his dark thoughts and his pathetic attempts at trying to tell Lucy he liked her.

"Come on, Natsu, let's go to the guild!" said Happy, and he finally managed to drag the pink haired boy out of the house.

What would he do when he faced Lucy again? Did she still hate him? It was probably a good idea to apologize her, and not compliment her. Natsu entered the guild, but to his relief, didn't see Lucy. He sat at the bar, staring at the counter.

"I didn't see you at all yesterday, did something go wrong with Lucy?" asked Mira sweetly as she dried off some beer glasses.

Natsu dropped his head on the counter, feeling even more depressed. "Oh cheer up Natsu, it's nothing that you can't fix, right?"

Right at that moment, Juvia walked by, and she decided this was a great moment to sit next to Natsu. Like Natsu, Juvia seemed depressed as well, and had a little raincloud following her, which was also raining down on Natsu.

"Juvia," he growled. "Do you mind?" He already felt depressed that he didn't need to be rained down upon to feel even more moody.

"Juvia is sorry, Juvia will leave now," she said in a monotone voice and sauntered away.

Natsu sat up straight and flames covered his entire body, he was trying to dry himself off. Then he finally saw Lucy walk into the bar, and she had taken a seat next to him. She gave him an odd look once she noticed his flames which made his flames go even higher since his heart was beating so fast again. Had she forgiven him? Was she still mad? Natsu's heart went crazy again, making his flames grow hotter.

"Natsu, you're really hot!" she complained, moving away from him a bit.

Natsu surprised the urge to grin; it seemed she wasn't mad at him anymore. Well, maybe just a little. "My clothes are wet," he stated simply, damn that Juvia.

Lucy fanned away a few of his flames, and he pouted – she was still annoyed so it seemed. "Can't you do it somewhere else? How'd you get wet in the first place?"

Natsu's head flicked over to Juvia, who was still raining upon other people. Lucy gave a curt nod, understanding right away. Lisanna appeared in front of him with a big smile.

"Hey guys, I have a question." She then pulled a weird face and looked at Lucy. "Why are you sitting so far away from Natsu?"

Natsu nodded in agreement; why was Lucy sitting so far away from him? He knew she was still annoyed, but it was hurting his feelings somewhat. "Yeah Lucy, I'm not gonna to burn you," he muttered slightly. Lucy sighed and finally got closer to him again, and he smiled, knowing she was getting less annoyed at him.

Lucy looked up at Lisanna. "What?"

"Are you two together?" she asked curtly.

Natsu resisted the urge to blush, but raised his eyebrows in tune with Lucy. "Together? Well, we're teammates if that's what you mean," said Lucy.

Natsu felt like a big boulder was dropped on his head, and he slumped his shoulders in defeat, his flames almost sizzling out. Just a teammate, he was just a teammate. It was like a stab through his heart, and he couldn't find the will to keep himself upright anymore.

Lisanna put a finger to her lips and nodded thoughtfully. "I see, so it's not the same here as back in Edolas."

"Why? What's back in Edolas?" asked Lucy.

She grinned at the both of them. "In Edolas, both of you are a couple!"

And his fire was back in full power, raging around his body. Natsu's spirits were lifted upon hearing those words – in Edolas he and Lucy were together! That meant something, right? "R-really?" he managed to stammer out nervously.

"D-don't look so obviously happy at that!" cried out Lucy as she backed up from his flames.

He turned his head to the blonde, wondering why she was shrieking so much. "Huh?" He was really happy that Edolas Lucy and Natsu were a couple, that meant Lucy _could_ like him, right? It meant the possibility of her liking him back was a good chance, right? The more he thought about it, the happier he got, and the hotter his flames grew.

"Stop trying to burn the guild down, Natsu! Tone it down!" she yelled at him.

Lisanna merely grinned at the ordeal. "I guess I was wrong!" she exclaimed, causing both heads to turn to her. "So Natsu, do you like Lucy?"

This was perfect, of course he liked Lucy, he just couldn't find the guts to tell her. He had to thank Lisanna later for giving him the opportunity to tell her straight to her face that he liked Lucy. What kind of man was he anyway if he couldn't tell the girl he liked about his own feelings? Showing off his flames even more, he turned to the blonde and gave her two thumbs up with a cheeky grin. The blush on his face wasn't that noticeable since his whole body was raging with fire, and he was thankful for that. He then finally mustered up the courage to tell her.

"I _really_ like Lucy!"

Lucy's ears turned red, which didn't go unnoticed by Natsu. Had she realized now, that he liked her? He just straight out told her! The girl then sighed softly and returned his smile.

"I really like you too," she said happily.

Natsu had a feeling Lucy had completely missed the point of his confession.


	6. Writing

**A/N:** Loes is an actual Dutch name, and is pronounced as Luce.

**Chapter 6 – **_**Writing  
**_

* * *

It was sitting on the corner of her desk, as if she didn't care he would see it. Natsu wasn't fooled however; he inched closer to the piece of paper, his green eyes trying to peek at what was written on it. He then sighed and shrugged his shoulders. Lucy wouldn't let some precious story of hers laying around, it wasn't even worth checking it out. No, Lucy would hide stories she didn't want Natsu to read – which was exactly why he had to find and read them! He didn't like to be told he couldn't, so it drove him mad with desire to find her secret story. It had to be somewhere in her small apartment.

Natsu tried sniffing it out, literally. With his keen sense of smell, he would be bound to find it, right? Natsu started to inhale the scent, and tried to focus on the scent of parchment. His eyebrows started to twitch in anger as he realized her entire apartment smelt like parchment.

"Damn you Lucy, writer freak," he mumbled out loud and kicked her couch while he was at it.

Where could she hide her secret story? Maybe under the couch? He bent down and saw nothing but dust under the couch. Maybe she hid it in one of her bookcases, it would be_ so_ obvious that no one would bother to look there! Natsu took each book from the wooden planks and opened it up, expecting a series of paper to fall out. However, after pulling out the fiftieth book, Natsu gave up – she didn't hid it in her bookcase. The boy was determined to keep on searching though; he wouldn't rest until he had found her secret hiding spot and read her stories. He had it all figured out in his mind; he'd be reading it on her couch, and if she came home, rub it in her face to tease her endlessly. It was going to be _fun._

However, after two hours of searching through her small apartment, Natsu still hadn't found her secret hiding place. It was beginning to really annoy him, to the point he almost set fire to her apartment (he quickly stomped his foot on it though). Where could she have hidden it? Maybe a secret spot in the wall? Natsu inspected all of the walls in her apartment knocking softly on them to hear if there was a hollow place. After four false alarms, Natsu couldn't find a damn thing. He went to rest down on her bed, angry that he didn't make any progress whatsoever.

"Where the hell did she hide it?" he muttered loudly, pounding his fist into her pillow.

Natsu stared at her pillow, then decided to ravish her entire bed, from top to bottom, until he had found what he was looking for. As he lifted the bed above his head (such a thing was no problem), he noticed a small notebook on the inside of one of the steel bars that were holding the mattress in place. He squealed out in joy and snatched the notebook from its hiding spot, then placed the bed back on the ground. It was a black notebook with no title on it, but Natsu knew this was Lucy's secret story! He had found it! The boy cuddled the notebook close to his chest, his anger floating away. Natsu made himself comfortable on Lucy's bed and held the notebook delicately in his hands.

"Time to read it!" he exclaimed and flipped it open.

Scribbled words written in Lucy's handwriting were scattered across the lined paper, and Natsu positioned his eyes on the first sentence, and began to read.

_Loes was on her way to the secret place her friend had asked her to come meet him at. She had medium blonde hair, tied up in a sideways ponytail, and a fairly big bust size._

Natsu clicked his tongue in a mocking voice. "Really Lucy, it's so obvious it's supposed to be you," he said with a small chuckle.

_She made her way to the big old oak tree and waited for her friend to arrive. Earlier he had told her to meet him there, because had he to tell her something important. So Loes waited, and waited, until she finally saw his handsome face appear in the distance. Adoring his white scarf and his usual attire, he slowly came closer._

"_Hey Drake," she greeted him with a smile._

_Drake ran his hand through his pink hair and smiled back. "So you showed up."_

Natsu tried his best not to laugh; who was Lucy kidding? White scarf? Pink hair? _Drake?_ Come on, it had to be him! It was so obvious, he wondered why Lucy would even write a story about them, but he continued to read.

"_What did you want to tell me?" she asked curiously and stepped closer to him._

_Drake turned his blushing face away from her. "Promise me you won't laugh?"_

"_Promise!"_

"_Good." He took a step closer to her and brought his hands upon her shoulders, pulling him closer to his bare chest. Drake then leaned his face down to her surprised one, and kissed her lips with his own._

_Loes was shocked to say the least, but she pushed that to the side as she felt a burning desire stir up inside of her as his lips began to move against her own. Against her own will she returned the favour and sucked his lips, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling herself closer to him. They broke apart after a few seconds, but Loes couldn't get enough of his lips, and slammed her lips on his to continue. It was breathtaking, and she was losing her mind at his hot touch. A second later and she felt his tongue trying to enter her mouth, so she willingly opened and felt his smooth tongue brush against her teeth. Her knees buckled and she almost fell against him with a loud moan. Their tongues intertwined and began to battle with each other, each stroke giving her enormous shocks of pleasure._

After ten more minutes of reading, Natsu slammed the notebook shut, his entire face flushed with red. He stared at the notebook in his hands with wide open eyes, and sweat had started to appear on his forehead. What kind of sick fantasy had he just read! It was obvious Loes was supposed to be Lucy, and Drake was supposed to be him – but why in the world did she write … did she write _that_ perverted thing! Was Lucy secretly a porn lover? Or did she secretly like him? Natsu's brain overloaded and he slumped with a red face in her pillow, unable to think anything further.

The door to Lucy's apartment opened in an instant. "Natsu!" shrieked Lucy upon finding him laying in her bed.

Natsu quickly hid the notebook behind his back and he looked at her with scared eyes. Lucy wrote about doing perverted stuff with him, how was he supposed to deal with this? Maybe Lucy actually _did _want to do those things with him, and wrote it out as a sick fantasy of hers! Natsu's eyes went as big as saucers, while his face turned even more flushed.

"Natsu?" asked Lucy as she walked closer to him. "Are you … blushing?" she said while she turned her head sideways.

Natsu backed up against the wall, and let the notebook slip back into her secret hiding spot (or at least, he hoped it was somewhat close). He opened his mouth to respond, but couldn't think of anything else but the part where he shoved his tongue down her throat and her moaning. Natsu groaned out loud, trying to shake the images from his head. He then stood up, backing away from Lucy, and inched closer towards the window – he had to escape! Escape from perverted Lucy!

"What are you doing? You're being weird, Natsu. Well, weirder," said Lucy and she gave him a puzzled look as he reached the window.

He quickly opened it, and jumped out, running away from her apartment. Lucy merely gave a loud huff and closed the window.

Natsu's heart was beating fast as the images started pouring into his head again – damn that Lucy for being a good writer. He had ran all the way to his house, but couldn't seem to run away from the image of him hunching over a naked Lucy, caressing her – Natsu bit back his thoughts and slapped himself in the face. What was he supposed to do now? He had actually read her stupid notebook, and he was going to make fun of her when she came home, but he never expected to find himself star as the main lead in a porn novel! What in the world was Lucy thinking when she wrote this? Did she wrote this for fun, to mess with his head, or for reasons he couldn't even think of?

Confused and embarrassed out of his mind, Natsu collapsed against his door, his brain shut down from too much thinking.

The next time Natsu saw Lucy again, the images flooded back into his mind and he turned bright red. The dragon slayer swiftly whirled around and went the opposite way – away from Lucy. The blonde girl merely huffed and ignored his antics, which was good, because Natsu had no idea how to face her now.

Maybe it really was a sick joke. A really, really sick joke that he couldn't stop thinking about. Just because she wrote that, didn't mean she actually meant to do that with him, or fantasized about it … who was he kidding, he couldn't figure out Lucy's reasons, she was fucking weird.

The best thing to do was probably tell her that he found her secret notebook. He wasn't going to admit to reading the whole thing, of course not, but it should be the proper thing to do to let her know that he knew about her sick fantasies, and apologize for ever thinking about them. Natsu shuddered and he tried to muster up the courage to break into Lucy's apartment. His fingers lingered on the window, waiting for it to be pried open. He wondered if Lucy would ever write a story about him barging in on her like this. His face now red, he jumped away from the window and used her door instead.

"Oh my – Natsu?" asked Lucy shocked as she opened the door.

Natsu hid his red cheeks and looked down at his feet. "Yo," he said.

"What are you using the door for?" she asked interested. "Unless you were too afraid of coming through the window, which must mean you did something bad," she then muttered angrily. "What did you do?" Lucy placed her hand on her hip and with the other one waved her index finger at him.

She certainly had him figured out pretty fast, but he didn't avoid the window because of her wrath, more like avoiding her fantasies.

It was best to straight out say it, so Natsu prepared himself as he inhaled the breath that was going to doom him. "I read your book."

Lucy's hands cupped her pinkish cheeks and smiled. "R-really?" she said in a higher pitched tone. "Was it any good?"

Natsu blinked; that was not the reaction he was expecting. "Uhhh …" he mumbled, at a loss of words.

"Oh don't be shy! If you read it, it must mean it was somewhat interesting, right?" she said happily.

The boy flushed red, because he _had_ read the entire thing. Not because it was interesting, but because it was just so damn perverted and weird and … maybe it was a little interesting? No! He couldn't let her sick fantasies get the best of him! She was probably thinking he had read the story that was sitting on her desk, the one that was so obviously placed for him.

"I'm not talking about the one that was on your desk," he said shyly.

Lucy leaned against the doorframe and had a puzzled look on her face. "What do you mean? That's the only story I'm writing at the moment."

Natsu turned his head away from her and mumbled something softly.

Lucy leaned forward. "Huh, what did you say?"

The boy pouted and repeated it once more. "The one … in your bed."

It took Lucy a second to realize what he had just said. Her eyes widened in shock and her cheeks were burning with red. "YOU BASTARD!" she yelled and slammed the door in his face. From inside he could hear her running around and screaming out loud because he had found her secret story.

He stood there staring at the door, not quite knowing what to do now. He was embarrassed, even more so now that Lucy knew it as well, and the only thing he had accomplished so far was make her freak out.

"I'm … I'm sorry for reading it!" he said, because he was really sorry for reading it. He couldn't shake the images out of his head anymore, he wished he had never read it!

The shrieking suddenly stopped, and Natsu's mind started thinking that maybe Lucy had committed suicide. Then he heard her soft voice pipe up and he sighed in relief.

"So … you're not mad?" The voice was close, she was probably leaning against the door.

Natsu brought a hand up to his face and he shook it. "No … I'm not. I'm more disturbed than anything."

And the shrieking returned, had he said the wrong thing? What did she expect him to say, that it was a wonderful story that she should publish? That he liked reading about how they stripped naked and that they were moaning out in pleasure?

"It's just a story! Those characters were fictional, and they didn't represent you and me!" yelled Lucy from far away.

Natsu snorted and pounded his fist on the door. "Oh come on Lucy, you can't think I'll actually believe that. Now open the door, I already feel bad enough for having read that, I don't want you to be mad at me."

"I'm not mad!" she shrieked.

"Yes you are! Now open up!"

"No! It's embarrassing, go away!"

Natsu bit his lip then kicked the door open, his green eyes falling on her body that was slumped over the bed. Lucy jumped up and stared at him with wide eyes and a huge blush on her face. She hugged her pillow and screamed.

"You broke my door, you idiot!"

Natsu smiled sheepishly. "Ehh, it's your fault for not letting me in."

"Idiot!"

The boy walked closer to Lucy. He didn't want her to be mad at him, even though she wrote those weird fantasies, he just wanted to apologize for having read it.

"I just want to say I'm sorry for reading it. I shouldn't have tried to find out about it …"

Lucy snorted loudly. "It took you hours to find it, didn't it?"

"Maybe … but that's not the point!" Natsu averted his eyes as he began to ask the burning question that had been on his mind all this time. "I just want to know … why you wrote it?"

Lucy buried her face into her pillow again, but didn't scream this time. "Why do you want to know?"

"There's gotta be some reason why you wrote us doing _that_ sort of thing," he said while suppressing the blood trying to claim his cheeks.

Lucy didn't budge, but lifted her face from the pillow and stared at him with big brown eyes. "Do you really want to know?"

For a second, Natsu was suddenly beginning to think that maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. He nodded his head regardless.

Lucy shyly looked at her pillow. "Promise me you won't laugh?"

Reminded by the same thing she wrote in her story, images of him shoving his tongue down her throat filled his mind. Natsu turned on his heel and ran far, far away. "Hell no! I am **NOT** doing that!"


	7. Practice

**A/N:** perverted comedy between Natsu and Lucy is pure gold, isn't it? It's why I love this couple so much, they can make anything funny.

**Chapter 7 – **_**Practice  
**_

* * *

It was going to be a disaster. No, even worse than a disaster, it was going to be a goddamn catastrophe. Lucy was doomed, really doomed, and it was making her feel sick thinking about her dilemma. You see, Lucy had accepted a job to play a role in some kind of play. She figured since she didn't do such a bad job on the last play she participated in, that this job was a piece of cake. Except it ended with a scene of her kissing her 'prince charming' passionately on stage.

Lucy had never had a boyfriend, let alone had her first kiss already. The smooch planted by her aunt's lips of a few years ago, didn't count. Yet she was expected to do it like a professional; it was going to be an utter disgrace for her once they notice she had zero experience 'kissing passionately'. There were no practice scenes for it either, the director was mumbling something about keeping the kiss innocent and passionate, and that practicing would get rid of the excitement of their first kiss – or whatever he was talking about.

"I am so deeaaaddd," she whined out loud.

"What are you complaining about?" asked Natsu as he sat down next to her at Fairy Tail's bar.

"It's this job I took," she mumbled and dropped her head on top of the bar.

"What about it? Is it difficult? I'll help!"

Lucy waved her hand at his friendly gesture. "No, it's not that. I'm supposed to act in a play."

"Oh, fun! Just like last time, right?"

"Sure …. _Fun_," she said that last part with a lot of spite in her voice.

"So why are you looking so down?" he asked and scooched a bit closer to her.

"Because!" she yelled out. "Because I have to kiss a guy at the end!"

Natsu looked at her blankly. "So?"

Lucy gritted her teeth and glared at him with her brown eyes. "Figures you wouldn't understand my problem here. You're as dense as ever, Natsu."

"Hey!" he called out incredulously. "That was uncalled for."

Lucy sighed. "Sorry. It's just that … I haven't ever … not even …_ once_ …" It was hard to admit she had never had a boyfriend, and had never kissed anyone. Most of all it was hard to admit this to Natsu, who probably wouldn't even understand her problem.

"You never kissed anyone before?" he finished her sentence.

Her eyes almost bulged out from the shock. He said it so plainly! As if it wasn't a big deal! "Don't say it so loud!" she hissed at him.

"So what's the problem here?"

She groaned out loud. "It's because they expect me to kiss like I have experience – but I don't! It's so embarrassing."

"Then all you need to do is practice, right?" he said with a cheeky grin.

"Yeah right, let's go practice kissing with each other, Natsu," she said with a snort.

"Okay."

She hit him on the head. "Don't say things like that!" Then she hit him again for good measure. "Idiot." Lucy bit her lips anxiously as she noticed her cheeks had become a little bit red at Natsu's suggestion.

"Ow, why'd you do that for? I was just trying to help!" he wailed like a little kid.

"Blah, I'm going home," she said angrily, got up and walked out of Fairy Tail's guild.

On her way home she just couldn't stop thinking about the play. How was she going to do this without embarrassing herself? There was no way she could become an expert at kissing when she had never done this before. It wasn't so bad that this would be her 'first kiss', when it was only for the play and fake. She could ignore it and call it her first fake kiss, so that her real first kiss still had meaning! Lucy sighed at her own thoughts; was she really that pathetic? She finally entered her apartment and crashed on her couch, mulling over her inability to kiss someone passionately.

Then that Natsu had to go and say okay when she made an off-hand comment about kissing him as practice. The girl snorted loud to no one in particular at the idea – no way she was going to do that. She couldn't kiss Natsu, that would be too strange. It was Natsu, her friend, her teammate – she couldn't kiss him! It would be so awkward and probably really embarrassing. Now that she was thinking about this; did Natsu ever kiss anyone? Lucy had always figured he was a celibate hero, knowing nothing about the opposite sex, but when he agreed to the practice kissing so nonchalant, she couldn't stop wondering about it.

"Yo!"

"IIEEKK! Don't sneak into my apartment like that!" she yelled out, scared out of her wits.

Natsu jumped inside and closed the window behind him. He was as sneaky as ever, the fool. "You actually yelled 'IIEEEKK', so funny," he snickered.

Lucy threw a couch pillow at his face, which he caught with his teeth and threw it away like a dog. The girl groaned and buried her face in her couch.

"Still worried about that?" he asked as he sat down next to her on her couch.

Lucy sniffed. "Uh-huh." She then lifted herself up and looked at Natsu worriedly. "What am I going to do Natsu? I'll make a fool out of myself at that last scene! They might not even pay me once they see how horrible I am at kissing, and I need to pay for this month's rent."

"What's so hard about kissing?" asked Natsu. He then pushed his cheeks closer with both his hands and pushed out his lips. "You just do it like this, right?" he said and made smooching sounds with his lips. He looked like a fish gasping for air.

Lucy tried to hold in her laughter at Natsu's retarded face. "You've never kissed anyone either, right?"

Natsu released his cheeks and shook his head. "Nope."

"Then why are you giving me advice about kissing!" she yelled and pinched his adorable cheeks with her fingers.

"Because I want to help you!" he said with a broad smile, and pulled his face away from her pinching fingers. "I don't see what so wrong about practicing it with each other."

Lucy flushed red at his suggestion once more and vehemently shook her head. "Because you're Natsu, that's why."

"Are you implying that I'd be a bad kisser?" he asked with a more serious voice.

"What? No! That's not the reason. I can't kiss you … that would be awkward. We're friends, not lovers."

"But you have no problem kissing some stranger," he pointed out and folded his arms knowingly.

Lucy pulled a sad face. "Don't remind me!"

"Then why would it be bad to practice with a friend? At least we know each other!"

"Why can't I have my first kiss be romantic," she said with a sniff.

"You were the one that suggested it …" he said annoyed.

"It was sarcasm! Sarcasm!"

The pink haired boy shrugged and turned his face away from her. "Whatever you say. I was only trying to help."

Lucy studied the boy next to her. Maybe he did have a point. She was going to lose her first fake kiss to some stranger in the play, so why not lose it first to someone she actually knew? Someone who she could trust, someone who wouldn't laugh at how bad she'd be. She then frowned and retracted that thought; Natsu would definitely laugh at how bad she would kiss. This was Natsu after all.

"You'd laugh at me anyway," she said with a pout.

"Do you really think I would do that?" asked Natsu with a sincere voice. "I haven't kissed anyone before either – we can be bad at it together!" he said with a chuckle.

Lucy smiled sheepishly. It was such a strange idea, such an over-the-top suggestion, but somehow, she was beginning to see the good side of this. It was Natsu, who had never kissed anyone either, so they would both be bad at it, and it was someone she knew, someone she liked at least. Lucy slightly nodded her head; she would rather kiss Natsu first than some stranger in a play.

"Alright, let's do it then."

Natsu was a bit taken aback. "R-really? You want to?"

"Well I'd rather not suck during the play …"

"Okay then." Natsu then puffed up his cheeks once more and pursed his lips. He squeezed his eyes shut and resembled a catfish at this point. "Whenevah you're wready!" he said through his awkward lips.

Lucy chuckled nervously at his 'trying' face. Well, what did she expect anyway; a professional kisser guiding her to her first kiss? She leaned a bit closer and stared at his fish lips, was she really going to kiss those? Was she really going to try and kiss Natsu, her best friend? Lucy inched closer and could feel his body heat engulfing her own face. Her heart started to beat faster, and she wondered what in the world she was doing. She pulled back with a blush on her face and screamed in frustration.

"I can't kiss you when you make a face like that!"

Natsu cracked an eye open, but his fishy lips remained in the same position. "Whatchu talkin' about?"

Lucy couldn't help it and had to laugh at him. Oh this was so embarrassing, Natsu was trying so hard and she was laughing in his face.

"Your face, you're trying too hard, it's making me laugh!" she said with a giggle.

Natsu finally returned to his normal face. "Hey, that hurts my feelings," he said in a sad voice.

Lucy cleared her throat and bowed her head to him. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that – I'm just nervous."

"Well, then get it over with!" he encouraged her by leaning closer to her, their faces now merely inches apart. When Lucy saw him squinting his face into the same position as earlier she cupped his face with both of her hands, forcing him to remain normal. His green eyes flew open and she stared into them, feeling her heart beat faster again.

"Don't," she said softly. "Just … relax, don't make that fish face."

Natsu gave her a small nod and relaxed his face, now looking very serious and actually kind of cute. Lucy stared at his pink and lush lips, knowing that she would have to get over herself and kiss them already. She used her hands to pull his face a bit closer to her, and she was starting to feel nervous once more. She was going to kiss Natsu, they were going to 'practice' kissing. Lucy felt Natsu's gaze on her, so she flicked her eyes upwards, and saw him looking cross-eyed at her. Lucy bit her lip to prevent the laugh coming out of her mouth. Instead she swallowed her sarcasm and brushed her thumbs over his eyes, forcing him to close them.

"Just keep them closed, okay? I get nervous when you're staring at me like that," she said, and lifted her thumbs off of his eyelids.

She directed her brown eyes to his lips again, and he was unconsciously pursing them anyway. Lucy decided not to say anything this time. She was going to do it; she was going to kiss Natsu. She dug her fingers hard into his cheek, and pulled her face closer to him. Her lips made a split second contact with Natsu's and she pulled away so fast as if her life depended on it. That wasn't even what she would call a kiss, it was just a brief contact of brushing each other's lips against each other.

"That's it?" asked Natsu as he opened his eyes and stared at her red face.

She pulled her hands away from his face and used it to cover up her own – she was way too embarrassed! She had kissed Natsu! Well, sort of – it was really fast.

"I thought you were supposed to actually kiss. You know, suck your lips together like this," he said and then clasped his lips closed and sucked air through it, causing him to make a kissing noise.

"I know that!" she snapped at him. "It's just so awkward!"

Natsu grumbled something under his breath, then placed his hands on her shoulders to keep her steady. "Fine, I'll just have to do it then." With that, Natsu slammed his face into hers, causing his teeth to bump into her lips rather painfully.

"Ouch!" she yelled out in pain and pulled away from him. "That hurt, you idiot!"

Natsu turned a bit red himself and sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Ah, sorry …"

Lucy shook her red head. "This is getting us nowhere. Let's try to do it slowly, okay?"

Natsu nodded his head, but sat still, waiting for her to make her move. "Uhh, let's both move to each other, okay?" she asked a bit shy, feeling his gaze on her.

"Okay," he said softly and slowly moved his face closer to hers.

Lucy did the same and saw him getting closer. At least he wasn't pursing his lips like before, which made him look really serious about it, and it was making Lucy feel more nervous and awkward about it. Their noses were about to touch, and Lucy panicked for a second; which side was she going to lean towards to avoid crashing into his nose? Before she could even voice such concerns, Natsu's hot nose bumped into hers, but at least it wasn't painful like his teeth this time.

"Uhm, let's lean to the right," she chuckled nervously. His face was right next to her! It was making her feel so hot, and she vaguely wondered if it was because Natsu naturally had a hotter body temperature.

Natsu tilted his face to the right, and so did she – now they were in perfect position to kiss each other's lips. His pink hair was lightly touching her forehead, it was a little bit ticklish. Lucy tried to ignore it and reeled in towards Natsu's lips. She fluttered her eyes closed after getting even more embarrassed by his green eyes gazing into her own. Their lips brushed against each other, like the touch of a feather. Natsu leaned further to press his entire lips on her, and they both stood still in this awkward position. Lucy felt her heart beat in her ears as she realized his hot lips were on hers. They weren't moving, and she could not stop thinking about this being her best friend that she was kissing. Finally, Natsu sucked her lips – causing her heart to jump up in her throat – and let go, pulling away from her. Lucy's face was as red as a tomato, and when she opened her eyes again, she saw Natsu's face wasn't any different.

Words failed to come out of her mouth, as Lucy was screaming inside of her head that she had just kissed her best friend.

"Well?" he asked after a while of silence, his red cheeks finally turning back to its original colour.

"Well what?" she finally croaked out, avoiding his eyes. This was really awkward.

"How was it?"

Her cheeks heated up even more – Natsu was as blunt as ever, wasn't he? How was kissing her best friend? Well, it was weird, awkward and it made her nervous. "I don't … know," she finally said.

Natsu slumped down in defeat. "Not good?" he asked in a hurt voice.

"It's not that … it's just weird. Too weird. You're my friend Natsu! Argh! We shouldn't have done this," she said, getting her voice back. "Practice is over!" she declared. "Please go home now, Natsu."

Surprisingly, Natsu didn't complain this time. He merely got up from her bed and walked towards her window.

"Don't tell anyone about this!" she screeched, suddenly remembering that she didn't want anyone else to know about this.

Natsu gave her a simple nod of his head. "I won't," he said, and finally left through the window.

That night, Lucy couldn't stop thinking about kissing Natsu. She had really screwed this one up, what made her think this was a good idea? She wouldn't be able to face him normally anymore after this. In fact, she was dreading seeing him again tomorrow at the guild. How should she act? Pretend they didn't kiss each other? Pretend nothing ever happened? Yeah, that seemed like the best option to her right now. She didn't sleep very well that night.

The next day at the guild, Lucy felt nervous and jumpy, her eyes glued to the entrance to see if Natsu was going to show up or not. Mirajane was already giving her suspicious looks, but Lucy ignored it.

"Looking for Natsu?" asked the white haired bartender cheerfully.

"Ah … no, I'm just looking," Lucy said nervously.

"Well, he's right there," said Mira and tilted her head towards the entrance.

Lucy felt her eyes grew wide in anticipation, and she slightly spun her body around so she was facing the entrance. There was Natsu, walking ever so proud into the guild. He didn't seem nervous or different at all. It was like yesterday never happened. Lucy figured that was a good thing, since she didn't want anyone to know about this, but on one hand she was a bit hurt that only she was making such a big deal about this. Her first kiss had been Natsu (not her aunt!), so it held some special place in her heart. At least it wasn't some random actor.

"Heya Lucy!" he greeted her and plumped down right next to her.

Lucy couldn't face him, so her eyes stared at her glass instead, she was recalling the memories from yesterday. How he crashed into her lips with his teeth, how their noses bumped against each other, and how his lips had touched hers.

"H-hey," she said in a shaky voice. Damn Natsu for being so normal, she was a nervous wreck, it was so unfair!

Natsu shuffled closer to Lucy, his head whipping from left to right with suspicious looking eyes. He then leaned his face closer to hers, which caused her to turn red.

"Don't worry, I didn't tell anyone," he whispered.

Lucy felt like she could die at the moment, it really was unfair. Natsu was still acting like a little kid, and Lucy was dying on the inside from embarrassment. She elbowed him in his side, causing him to gasp for air. "Don't mention it anymore," she said in a very low voice.

After that, it seemed like a fairly normal day at the guild. Lucy would still get embarrassed if she got too close to Natsu, or if their hands accidentally touched each other. She really couldn't stop thinking about yesterday, it was like a permanent image burned into her brain. Despite this, Lucy thought she handled herself quite well around Natsu, save for a few punches and kicks when he got too close for her own comfort – Natsu had always been the touchy feely kind of guy. A few hours later and Lucy departed from Fairy Tail to go and practice her play. She only had a few lines, but for some reason, she had a huge kissing scene at the end of the story.

Lucy practiced her lines at the theater with all the other actors, including the guy she was going to kiss. She studied the guy with criticizing eyes, deeming him not worthy of her lips, but having no other way than to do it anyway, since she needed the money. It was going to be a disaster still, even if she kissed Natsu before. In fact, that probably made her even more nervous, since she kept losing concentration as her mind kept picturing their kiss over and over again.

When practicing was finished, Lucy returned home to her lovely apartment. She was feeling rather down, since she couldn't stop thinking about the disaster that was going to happen in under two weeks. The blonde girl opened her apartment door and almost did a double take when she saw Natsu sitting on her couch.

"Y-,"

"Don't 'yo' me!" she interrupted the boy and slammed the door shut. "Why are you always sneaking into my apartment? Can't you just act like a normal friend and knock on my door, asking if you could come in?"

"But I get bored waiting for you to return!" he said with a pout. "Anyways, how was practice at the theater?" he asked excited, totally over the fact that he broke into her apartment again.

Lucy sat down on the other couch and sighed heavily. "Fine I guess."

Natsu wobbled back on forth like a little kid who couldn't hold in his excitement – he obviously wanted to ask her something. "What?" she asked him, a bit irritated at his behavior.

"Are we still going to practice?" he asked innocently.

Lucy's face flushed with red and she quickly shook her head. "No! It's awkward Natsu."

"So I guess it really was bad after all …" he said sadly. "I'm sorry I couldn't help." Then he put on a small grin. "I never kissed anyone before either, I guess that's why I was so bad at it," he said with a small chuckle.

Lucy felt her heart break at Natsu's sincerity and innocence. No it wasn't that it was a bad kiss per se, it was because he was her best friend, and they shouldn't be doing things together such as kissing. But the way he said it like that, it made her feel guilty for being so hard on him. He was only trying to help, and it was his first as well.

"I'm sorry, Natsu," she said. "You weren't bad at it, it's just that it was a bit weird to me."

Natsu looked up with green, hopeful eyes. "Is it _still_ weird?"

Lucy flipped her head to the side to ponder his question. "A bit, I guess."

"So it wasn't bad?

"I don't know, I don't have much to compare it to, now do I?"

Natsu simply snickered at her. "Then let's get better!"

"You still want to practice?"

"Why not?"

"I don't have a good enough answer to that," she said reluctantly. "Aside that you're my best friend."

Natsu smiled at her warmly and puffed up his chest. "And best friends help each other."

Lucy gave him a smile in return, he was certainly right with that statement. Best friends did help each other out when they needed it, and Lucy needed experience in kissing. It was awkward, and weird – but who better to practice with than her best friend who couldn't do it either?

"Okay, okay – I give. Let's try it again."

Like a faithful puppy dog, Natsu crawled his way over to her couch and sat on the armrest, smiling brightly at her. Lucy looked up at him, and frowned at the position they were in; she would have to strain her neck to be able to reach him.

"Can't you sit somewhere else?" she asked, annoyed at the distance between them.

Natsu slid off the armrest and stood up straight, then took her hands into his own and pulled her off of the couch, and she crashed into his chest. Lucy mumbled something incoherent as she pushed her blushing face away from his naked chest. So he wanted to do it while they were standing, that's fine by her. Natsu wasn't that much taller than her, so she could easily reach him without much effort.

Natsu scratched his arm, becoming a bit impatient. "Should I …?" he started.

Lucy shook her head while she stared at his naked chest. "No, I want to initiate it first."

"Well you're not going anywhere if you keep staring at my chest."

Lucy huffed indignantly at him. "Fine!" she said and gathered up all her courage again. She was going to get it right, she was going to become a good kisser – Natsu be damned!

And then she stood frozen, not quite knowing how to approach him anymore. She felt awkward with her arms hanging by her side. Kissing wasn't just about the lips, but also about her body posture, and right now, she was only standing nervously in front of Natsu. Should she wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him then? Lucy looked up at Natsu's green eyes, he was still waiting for her first move.

"S-should I put my arms around you?" she asked shyly. She had read it in books how lovers would passionately embrace each other while kissing, so standing like she was felt very weird.

Natsu shrugged. "If you think that helps."

Lucy took a tiny step forward and raised her arms, firmly wrapping them around Natsu's neck, and she clasped her hands together at the back of his neck. She gazed into his eyes, and she felt her heart beat going crazy again. This was still as nerve wrecking as it was the first time, especially since he kept _staring_ at her. She tore her eyes away from him and opted to stare at his naked chest once more, admiring how his muscles were very toned.

"Uhm," she said, still not feeling ready for it. "Wrap your arms around me," she commanded him.

"Like this?" said Natsu, and his right arm snaked around her waist, causing her to be pushed into the chest she had been admiring earlier. The contact of his skin made her even more aware of her own body, and how very hot he was. Her cheeks heated up in response to the close proximity of their bodies, even her big breasts were pressed up against his chest, it was rather embarrassing, but she tried to focus on her objective; capture Natsu's lips.

Lucy tilted up her head so she was staring into his eyes once more, and felt weak in her knees. It was still weird, trying to kiss your best friend, but she felt that if she was going to succumb to her nerves, at least Natsu wouldn't laugh. In fact, he'd probably catch her, because he had a very strong hold on her waist, it was kind of comforting.

"Alright, here I go!" she exclaimed, willing herself to gain more confidence in herself.

She inched closer to his face, and saw that Natsu was doing the same as well. The arm around her waist pulled her even closer so that now their foreheads were bumping against each other. She felt his hot breath touch her already red cheeks, and she wondered if Natsu's heartbeat was going as fast as hers. They both leaned their faces to the right, to avoid the nose-bumping horror again, and Lucy couldn't bear Natsu's intense stare anymore, so she shut her eyes as soon as her lips finally touched his.

It was just like last time; hot and nerve wrecking. It wasn't unpleasant or uncomfortable – just strange and weird. Lucy frowned as their lips stayed pressed together – wasn't there supposed to be movement there? So she decided to softly suck his lips. It sent a weird feeling down her spine, and she felt her body shiver in response. Lucy then pulled back, enough to look at him without going cross-eyed. She was surprised to find that Natsu had his eyes closed as well, though they opened once she had pulled away.

"H-how was that?" she asked nervously. Was it bad? She didn't think so.

"Dry," he noted.

Lucy's eyebrows furrowed; dry? Did he expect anything different? "Is that bad?"

Natsu's tongue flicked over his lips, wetting them in the process, and he leaned his face down to hers. "Let me try it like this," he said in a husky voice. Lucy automatically closed her eyes and waited for him to kiss her.

His wet lips pressed onto hers, and it was a different feeling than before. She had imagined she wouldn't like his saliva being rubbed on her lips, but it added a nicer sensation. Before it was – like Natsu had said – dry, but now it was soft and warm, sliding across her own lips in a much easier way than the first time. Natsu parted his lips just the tiniest bit and sucked her bottom lip. Lucy dug her fingers onto the back of his neck, feeling strange but happy. She returned the favour by sucking his lips as well. They pulled away at the same time, each of them breathing louder than before.

"Better?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Hmm," she mused. Then she licked her lips with her tongue, wetting them as well. Seeing this, Natsu did the same to his own lips.

Lucy leaned to the left this time and crashed her wet lips onto him. She felt goose bumps appear on her arms once they made contact. It was making her shiver, but not in a bad way. Natsu became more aggressive and sucked her lips, hard. Because both of their lips were wet, the sucking sensation was intensified and made her weak to her knees. Who knew that kissing was actually this ... this enjoyable?

She parted from his lips, but stayed close. "I think we're supposed to move our lips against each other," she said, remembering how in books they were always eating each other's faces.

"Move?" he repeated. "Move how?"

That was a pretty good point; move their lips how? "I don't know, let's just try?" she said a bit unsure of herself.

Natsu frowned, but nonetheless leaned down to kiss her lips. It was starting to feel better the more they did it – though she was not going to admit that to her best friend. Lucy slid her lips across his, hoping that this was the right way to do it. Natsu got the hint, and pressed down harder on her lips, sucking the life out of them, while he moved his face a bit so he was effectively dragging her lips to the side. Lucy yanked her lips back, and murmured; "not so rough, Natsu," before she kissed him again.

"Sorry," he mumbled against her lips, this time returning with a more gentle suck.

Lucy indulged in the sucking herself, being a lot less aggressive than Natsu, then she parted for a second and switched sides, leaning to the right this time, and brought their lips together again. It was really starting to feel like kissing now, and boy was she enjoying herself this time. She hadn't even noticed how her fingers were running through his pink hair, scraping his scalp. They moved their lips against each other in a rather inexperienced way, but soon they managed to find a rhythm they both liked. Her lips felt very hot and rather big from all the sucking she was enduring, especially since Natsu couldn't control himself from time to time. Yet it was nice, it wasn't so awkward anymore when she first tried it. It was only Natsu, he had as much experience as she did, which was comforting to her in a way.

Natsu's hand was now exploring her back, a fact that she only half registered in her mind, since she was so focused on his lips – but she didn't mind it at all. In fact, it made the kissing feel better for some reason. They parted and returned so many times with their lips, it was like a contest to see how many times they could press their lips against each other. When Natsu got a bit too rough on her again, causing his teeth to accidentally graze her top lip, she bit his bottom lip with her own teeth as revenge. A strange gargled sound emerged from Natsu's throat, but it was muffled by the kiss they were sharing. Lucy's eyes flew open in surprise, wondering what he just did. She was about to question him when his hand pressed hard against her back, and Lucy's legs turned into jelly. She slumped against his chest, holding herself upright with her hands on his neck, but never once broke their kiss.

This had gone on for another minute or so when Lucy decided it was time to breathe normally again, so she slipped her hands from his neck and distanced himself from him, finally leaving his hot and lush lips. The girl cleared her throat and brushed her long blonde hair with her fingers to compose herself after such a make-out. She was a bit woozy and light-headed – and her heart was beating like crazy.

"Erm," she said as she avoided Natsu's eyes. He was probably wondering why she stopped.

"That was better," she said with a shy smile. "You could stand to be a bit more gentle with me though – your teeth can be very sharp!"

Natsu brought her closer to him again, since his arm was still wrapped around her waist, and he laughed loudly. "Well Lucy, I think you could stand to be a bit more rough with me! I won't break, I promise."

Lucy felt her cheeks heat up, wondering if she was too passive.

"When you bit me," he said with a strained voice. "That wasn't bad."

"Huh?" she said surprised. "You liked that? I just bit you because your teeth hit my lips again."

Natsu finally let go of her waist, using this arm to run a hand through his pink hair. "Is that weird?"

She didn't know how to answer him; if he liked his lips being bitten, well … then he liked it.

"Oh, and your fingers going through my hair felt pretty good too," he said with a big grin, his cheeks slightly flushed with pink.

Lucy wasn't even aware that she did this, it went sort of on instinct. But she was glad he liked it, that was a good thing. She then smiled, remembering his hand running across her back. "And your hand on my back felt good as well."

"Really?" he said with an arrogant voice. "So you liked it, huh?"

Well, the kiss had definitely caught her off guard, and it wasn't something she'd say she would never want to do again. No, it wasn't bad at all. "Maybe," she said with a small smile.

"Look, we became better at it!" he said cheerfully.

Lucy simply laughed at the absurd situation. She had just made out with her best friend – and _liked _it. All for the purpose of becoming more experienced with kissing. She secretly wanted to continue these practices, but didn't say a word to Natsu, he might have different thoughts. In fact, the more she started to think about, the stranger the situation became. She kissed her best friend and enjoyed it. That was strange, wasn't it? Lucy shook her head; they would have to stop.

"Yeah, thanks Natsu. I think we've done enough practice now."

Natsu looked slightly disappointed. "Okay then."

Lucy waited for him to move away, to leave her apartment, but the dragon slayer didn't budge. "Uhh, you can go home now, Natsu."

"Why? Can't I hang out some more?"

Lucy bit her lip, almost instantly reminded how their lips had smashed against each other just moments before. She couldn't look in Natsu's face anymore after that ordeal. It was better if he left now and left her some time to ponder about her strange feelings.

"We'll hang out more tomorrow, I'll promise!" she said, hoping he would take the bait and leave.

"Fine, whatever you say Lucy." He then stretched his arms behind his neck, slowly walking away from her. "Guess I'll go then." Before he could reach her window however Natsu quickly hopped back over to Lucy, stole a swift kiss from her lips, gave her a big smile, and finally left through the window.

Lucy stood there a bit flabbergasted. Was that a real kiss, or just practice? The blonde girl shook her head and went to bed.

The next day, like she had promised, Natsu came over to her apartment to hang out. It felt weird to be around him this time, since she couldn't stop thinking how much she liked kissing him, and how much she actually wanted to do it again. She also wondered if it had affected Natsu as well; did he want to kiss her again? It's not like they were bad at it or anything, otherwise he would have said it. In fact, he wanted her to be a bit more rough, a thought that made her blush and avoid looking into Natsu's smiling face as he sat on her bed.

"Hey Lucy," he called out.

"Hmm?" she said, pretending not to have been staring at him all this time.

"Do you think you're good enough at kissing now?" he asked innocently.

"I-I don't know …" she admitted meekly.

Natsu flashed all his teeth at her. "You can always continue to practice with me, you know!"

It was an offer she couldn't resist, not when he said it in such a cute and innocent way. So she smiled and huffed loudly, bringing her hands on her hips. "Only if you can be a bit more gentle with me."

"Done!" he said with a grin. He then patted his hand on the bed, gesturing for her to come sit next to him.

Lucy walked over, knowing full well that she wasn't going to kiss him for practice this time. She couldn't resist the temptation, even if it was her best friend. Kissing Natsu felt pretty damn good, and Lucy wasn't going to reject an offer to do it again, so she sat down next to Natsu and swiftly kissed his lips, jumping straight into the action.

It felt good to feel his warm and wet lips on her again. Lucy wondered if he had licked his lips right before she lunged in, but the thought was pushed to the back of her mind once Natsu started getting into it as well. He was gentle this time, caressing her lips in an almost angelic manner. She knew he wanted her to be a bit more rough, so Lucy didn't hesitate but to press her lips down harder on his, and sucking as hard as she could. The reaction she got out of Natsu was better than she had hoped. He rewarded her aggressiveness by pushing her down onto the bed and hovering above her. Lucy wrapped her arms around his back, raking her nails across it as Natsu deepened the kiss.

She felt herself sink deeper into the bed as Natsu supported his weight by putting both his hands right next to her face. It was kind of exciting this way, having Natsu on top of her as their lips battled with each other. Lucy felt rather daring, so she parted her lips to reveal her teeth, and lightly bit his bottom lip. Natsu groaned in response, lowering his head onto hers more and switching sides to kiss her again. Lucy felt rather accomplished and satisfied after hearing him groan. It was a groan of pleasure, that's for sure, and it was very exciting to be the cause of it.

Without even thinking, she said, "we can use our tongues as well."

Natsu briefly parted from her lips, pondering on what she had meant. Lucy answered his questions by pulling his head down on hers again with her hands, slightly pulling his hair as well. She daringly wormed her tongue out of her mouth and licked Natsu's lips. He didn't know what it was at first, but as soon as she pried his own lips open with her tongue, he tensed up. Lucy wasn't that sure of what to do either, so she gently brushed her tongue against his own. It was unlike anything she had ever felt before; his tongue was so wet and warm, just brushing against it once sent a shock of pleasure down her body.

Natsu snapped out of his daze and decided to engage as well. He let Lucy play with his tongue, slowly making twirls around her tongue in return. Lucy started to breathe hard through her nose, what she really needed was to pull away from his face and take a large breath, but it felt too good to leave him just yet. It was exciting and really warm, even though she didn't know what she was doing half the time, she was still enjoying it. Judging by Natsu's shaking arms, he was enjoying it too.

The boy then finally mimicked her movements, brushing his tongue against her, making her shiver against him. Lucy finally pulled her tongue out of his mouth and was able to take the big breathe that she needed. It didn't last long before Natsu crashed his lips against her, and stuck his tongue in her mouth. It was different than when she did it to him, it was almost like he was invading her privacy, but it felt rather good as he kept swiping across her tongue. Lucy grinned against his mouth, then lowered her teeth onto his tongue, giving him a gentle nip. Natsu inhaled sharply, then shifted his position so that he was finally on top of her for real, his legs sitting right in between her own legs. Lucy pulled back a bit so his tongue slipped out of her mouth and returned to kissing just his lips again. She let her hands explore his back, even going as far as sliding her hands underneath his clothes so that she could feel his bare back under her touch.

They had finally gotten good enough to alternatively switch between kissing and dipping their tongues in each other's mouths. In fact, you could say they had gotten pretty experienced at kissing – but Lucy's objective had changed by now. Now she was just enjoying kissing Natsu, and she especially enjoyed hearing him groan in pleasure. To hear it again, she bit his lips – hard this time. She managed to draw out a loud moan from his throat, and he almost collapsed on top of her, but kept himself steady. A new kind of emotion washed over her as she realized she had the power to make Natsu moan – a great feeling in itself.

And then Natsu decided to rip himself away from her, and plant his lips on the side of her neck. He sucked it, and Lucy couldn't help but gasp for air. Feeling like she had lost the battle of control, she pushed Natsu off of her body and looked at him bewildered.

"What'd you do that for?" she asked him, her voice almost a hiss and a bit hoarse from the kissing. She rubbed the spot on her neck that he had kissed, it was burning with sensations.

Natsu leaned back on the bed and gave her a blank stare. "I don't know," he admitted stupidly. "Sorry, I don't know what came over me," he said shyly, turning his head away from her. "It's just that your neck smelled really good …"

"Smells good?" she said hesitantly. She knew about Natsu's heightened sense of smell, but this?

He nodded his head, and she finally realized how flushed his face was. "When we're kissing your scent changes, it smells really good."

"Does it now?" she said absentmindedly. He was probably talking about the pheromones that she was releasing. Realizing that she was effectively telling Natsu to 'come do me' with her body's scent, she turned bright red. No wonder he had nipped at her neck when he was able to smell so much better than her. She wondered how he was even able to control himself that much around her. Lucy studied his body posture; it was limp and he looked almost exhausted. Well maybe he wasn't that great at controlling her urges, considering he seemed to be pretty out of it. That's not to say she wasn't either.

"Natsu, lay down with me," she said softly as she turned on her side to face him.

Natsu did as he was told and laid down on his side as well, staring into her brown eyes.

"I think we're done practicing for today," she said with a chuckle.

Natsu grinned from ear to ear hearing this. "Only for today, huh?"

Lucy shyly bit her lip when he noticed the way she had carefully picked out her words. There was no way this was going to be the last time, definitely not.

After all, they still needed plenty of practice.

And the play? She cancelled it.


	8. Misunderstanding

**A/N:** I'm glad to see everyone loved Chapter 7 - _Practice_ so much! Now, I know a few of you want me to continue it, and I'd probably do it, but it would most definitely turn into an M rated continuation (very lemony). So if you're all fine with that, just say the word! Until then, here's some meaningless fluff.

**Chapter 8 – **_**Misunderstanding**_

* * *

Lucy cheerfully entered her apartment, having a big surprise for Natsu and Happy. She had gotten these free tickets to go see a performance of fire breathers, she knew Natsu would love it. Except, Natsu wasn't in her apartment this time.

"Strange," she said out loud, walking around the premises in search for the pink haired boy and the blue cat. They were nowhere to be seen. She simply shrugged and took a bath, she figured she could give the tickets to them tomorrow when she would see them at the guild. Her next encounter with the pink haired boy was indeed at the Fairy Tail guild. Lucy sat down next to him, causing Natsu to flinch back in response.

"What's wrong with you?" she said suspiciously.

Natsu whipped his head back and forth, looking quite uncomfortable, like he had done something wrong. "N-nothing!" he lied.

Lucy hand waved his obvious lie, ignoring it since she had these tickets that she wanted to talk to him about. She would get back to his suspicious behavior later.

"Anyways, I wanted to talk to you about something."

Natsu swallowed loudly, avoiding eye-contact with her. Oh he most certainly did something wrong, but Lucy still wanted him to know about the tickets first. "What about?" he asked nervously.

"Well, it's a surprise! I can't talk to you about it yet," she said, noticing Happy wasn't with Natsu. She wanted Happy to hear the news as well.

For some reason, Natsu's face started to burn a bright red. "A-aye," he said weakly.

Lucy studied him with suspicious eyes. "Natsu, what are you getting all red for?" she asked. "Did you do something wrong today?"

He hastily turned his face away from her, fanning his hand at it. "I'm just really hot at the moment!"

The girl shrugged; she would pry out the real reason later. "Where's Happy?" she asked.

"Uhm, he's sleeping at home."

Lucy smiled and grabbed his hand, pulling him up with her and dragged him out of the guild. "Well then, let's go to your house!"

Natsu stayed silent on their way to his house, which was very surprising and also kind of creepy. Nevertheless, they arrived at Natsu's crappy old house, and Lucy pushed open the door, pushing away the trash that was blocking it as well.

"Why'd you want to come here?" asked Natsu quietly as he walked in behind her.

"Because I got something important to tell you!" she said happily, then looked around for Happy.

The blue cat was sleeping in the hammock, safe and sound. Lucy hopped over some trash to get to him, and shook the cat. He only groaned in response and turned over to sleep on his other side.

"Hey, Happy, wake up! I got a surprise," she said while grinning. Happy wouldn't wake up though.

"Just leave Happy be, he'll wake up in an hour or so," said Natsu.

"Aww, but I wanted him to know," she said disappointed and turned to face him.

Natsu cleared his throat, avoiding her eyes once more. "What is it?"

"Well, I really wanted to tell you yesterday, but since you didn't even come to my apartment," she started, then slipped her hand into the pocket of her skirt, slowly pulling out the tickets.

"Anyways, I wanted to ask you if you would like -."

Natsu held up his hands in front of her, motioning for her to stop talking. "I don't know yet, okay!"

Lucy frowned and looked at him confused, her fingers letting go of the ticket. "Wait, you know already?" she asked.

Natsu's face started to turn red once more, and Lucy wondered what in the world he was thinking. "Y-yeah … Mirajane told me yesterday."

"Oh that snitch! I told her not to say anything to you before I did!" said Lucy angrily, she would need to have a word with the white haired woman later on. "Well anyways, what's your answer?"

Natsu shuffled on the spot, scratching his arm awkwardly. "I don't know yet … I need some time to think about it, is that okay?"

Lucy frowned again. "Sure … but these things got a time limit on them, you know,"

Natsu nodded his head nervously. "I know, I know."

"Well, just let me know before Saturday, alright?"

"Saturday, okay," he repeated.

"I'm going back to the guild now, will you let Happy know as well?" she asked, walked towards the door already.

"Sure …" he said a bit confused.

Lucy waved him goodbye and went back to the guild. The performance was on next week Saturday, so Natsu would have until Friday to make up his mind. Which was weird, considering Lucy had thought he would loved to go see it and snatch he tickets out of her hands. Instead he was fumbling over his words and couldn't stop shuffling with his feet. What was wrong with him anyway?

Days passed on, and every time she had seen Natsu, he would make a quick getaway, or turn around and pretend he didn't see her. Lucy had no idea what made him behave this suspicious around her, but she had a feeling Mirajane was behind it. It was almost nearing Friday, and Lucy was beginning to think her tickets would really be wasted. So she decided to remind Natsu – if she could get a hold of him that is.

"Natsu!" she called out, jogging after the dragon slayer when she saw him exiting the guild.

Natsu stopped in his tracks and faced her, not running away this time. "What's up?" he said indifferently when Lucy caught up with him.

"I just want to let you know that tomorrow is the last day, you know."

Natsu's cheeks once more turned red at the mention of it, and Lucy really wanted to ask why. "I know, and I promise I'll have my answer by then."

"Okay good, you didn't forget about it or anything," she sighed in relief.

"Forget it? More like it's been on my mind the whole week …" he said bitterly.

"Really? So you're exited?" she asked happily. Maybe he did want to go after all!

Natsu stared at her with wide eyes. "I uhh … I'll talk to you tomorrow!" he said hurriedly, then ran away from her.

Lucy merely huffed and stomped her foot on the ground, the nerve of the guy. Tomorrow came and Lucy waited patiently for Natsu to tell her his answer, since tomorrow the performance would be held and the tickets would be useless.

"Can we go someplace alone?" asked Natsu.

Lucy raised her eyebrows, which turned into a frown; she just didn't get Natsu lately. His actions were so bizarre and unpredictable sometimes. She had a feeling he would finally explain himself, so she let Natsu guide her out of the Guild, and they went around the back where they could be alone.

"So …" she started as they stood together in silence.

Natsu looked up at her and gave her an awkward grin. "Uhm, I just wanna say I'm sorry for acting weird and all that this week …"

Lucy crossed her arms and nodded. "You sure did, what was up with that anyway?"

Natsu ignored Lucy's question and continued. "And uhh ... my answer …"

She waited for him to finish his sentence. It wasn't that hard to tell her if he wanted to go or not, she wouldn't be mad if he turned down her tickets. They were given to her free of charge anyway. Lucy's thoughts were interrupted when she felt Natsu's hands on her arms. She was about to ask what he was doing, when her lips were quickly muffled by Natsu's. Her eyes grew wide in shock and she pushed him away on instinct, making him stumble backwards.

"W-what are you doing!" she yelled at him, her face turning an awful shade of red.

Natsu looked at her weirdly, his face red as well. "Huh?" he said stupidly.

"What the hell Natsu, what gave you the idea to suddenly kiss me? Ugh!" she said then slapped him across his cheek.

How dare he kiss her! It was her first kiss as well! Natsu merely widened his eyes as he started to stutter his words.

"B-but, I thought that … I thought you wanted me to!"

"Whaaat? What made you think that!"

He cocked his head to the side. "Don't you like me?"

Lucy's eyes almost bulged out. "Wait – who told you that?"

"Mirajane said you liked me last week."

Oh, she was definitely going to kill that woman for lying to Natsu. She had told Mirajane about the tickets, but never said anything about liking Natsu. She knew something was up when Natsu acted so weird on the day she was trying to give him the tickets. That Mirajane …

"She's such a liar! Last week I told her that I have some tickets for a fire breather performance for tomorrow, which I wanted to give to you. But then you said you already knew, and needed some time to think about it. I figured you hadn't decided whether or not to go yet."

"So wait, are you telling me that's all you wanted to ask? If I could go to some performance?"

"Yes! I got the tickets right here," she said, pulling them out of her pocket and shoving it into Natsu's face. "What did you think I was talking about?"

"I thought you wanted to know if I liked you too …"

"…"

Oh god, Natsu basically told her he liked her by kissing her. When Natsu saw Lucy's face heating up with blood, he quickly backed away from her.

"No, no, it's not what you think! I just did that … because I didn't want to hurt your feelings! Honestly! There's no way I could like you. Yeah, maybe in your dreams – I just didn't want you to feel bad around me."

"Wow Natsu, I never imagined you would have the guts to lie straight to my face," she said with an all-knowing smirk.

"I really don't you like you back!"

"Who said I liked you in the first place?" she butted in.

He buried his face into his scarf, all embarrassed. "Argh, don't confuse me!"

Lucy stepped closer to him, which made him even more cautious of her. "You were thinking all this week that I liked you, and you responded by kissing me. Hmm, I don't know what I should do about that."

"You should definitely forget it! It was a mistake! A lie!"

"If I never told you about these tickets, did you assume we would become boyfriend and girlfriend?" she said tauntingly.

Natsu violently shook his blushing head, which was so adorable at the moment. "I didn't!"

"You want to be my boyfriend, don't you?" she asked as she marveled in his weakness. It was so much fun teasing him right now, serves him right for right for kissing her in the first place.

"I never said that!"

Lucy laughed out loud, much to the surprise of Natsu. "This isn't funny, Lucy," he said darkly, but Lucy only laughed louder when she heard his threatening voice.

"Oh Natsu, you're so stupid, you know that? I can't believe you thought I liked you. Then you went as far as kissing me! I'd be pissing myself if it weren't for the fact that I'm still a little bit angry at you – still, this is priceless!" she said while she took a deep breath to laugh again.

"Fine, what if I did believe that you liked me? So what!" he said as he turned away from her laughing face.

"Well, I would have never thought you would respond to my feelings with a kiss. Come on – did you really think we'd become a couple?"

Natsu remained silent.

And Lucy suddenly got it through her thick mind; Natsu was being honest and sincere about his feelings at the moment. "Oh god, you really want to be my boyfriend."

He whirled around, his face still a dark red, and yelled; "I do not!"

Lucy simply smiled at him and slowly shook her head. "I'll tell you what," she said and walked closer to him.

"I'll let you know my answer in a week," she whispered in his ear.

Natsu's ears turned red this time as well, and he backed up, looking at her all flustered. Lucy simply grinned and walked away, leaving him to ponder on what she had just said.


End file.
